Amber: Something Wicked

The new generation struggles to control their fates.

Rise up! Your chains are broken. Or LR gets a new sandbox. And hey - We got the Prick!!!

Lisette is working on mental contact with her children, to a moderate success. Now though, the plan is to help Little Red take back the world of his birth. Apparently

It is revealed to be a triple world populated by Humans, Elves and Salamanders. The Salamanders are the most powerful, but the least populous and the heaviest controlled. The Elves have sealed themselves up, but there could be Salamanders in disguise. But probably not. Salamanders are being controlled by their names, and were built that way by their previous master: Orokan. Totally in Thrall by someone who has their names, which Yagamar has. They are being contained by a book. Plans are being bandied about concerning the book.

But then we started to focus on the invisible sword. Amongst its powers, is it’s ability to kill beings with a mantle. Jandar has been to the place so is familiar.

William, Lisette and Little Red are gearing up for the assault. We are taking Grace & Harald with them. Arrive in the lands of the Humans, stumble upon a castle where the past is being replayed many many times. William’s pet is called Draco (Now and for all time is called thus).

In the Castle, a ‘Guardian’ jumps up and threatens Jandar, who had been it’s torturee for years. Lisette blasts it with a mental contact. After a little more back and forth smacktalk, Little Red gemmed him.

William has the sword, and Yagamar showed up in a big cloud. Bitching and taunting back and forth. Yagamar thinks he will walk a Pattern, promised by Obbie. Setting up traps for us and stopping us from leaving. Just a full blown elemental army to jump us as we exit.

Lisette is going to feel out the ward and see why it seems to block out Trump. Yagamar the Storm God – with a mantle, he is a God, but not Pattern guy. Just the rituals are being done correctly. LR is debating on just booting the fuck out of Yagamar. Buying the world and its trappings. Not going to go on gross changes.

LR is finding his mother and half-brother’s mother.

William sits down to a nice family dinner – paternity is discussed. Then after retiring to the library for brandy and cigars. They Trump LR and he details the dangers and history of the Jewel of Judgement.

Explaining how he wants to borrow the Jewel to track down Oberon. Eric demurs – doesn’t want LR to go BatShit crazy while he sequesters himself with the Jewel.

Visiting Bel, New Goddess being added to the Pantheon, Art & Magic is being bandied about.

Drawn into Trump with Flora, looking to use all of the “BIGBRAINS” to track down Oberon.

LR contacts his Dad and invites him to the Party. Passes him the Mothers and they continue on.

Back at Castle Amber – everyone is gearing up for Bear. A really big Bear.

Initiating the contact – Oberon is actually in the Castle – Disguised as Gerard. Lisette goes to freeze Oberon, William is going to attempt to Limb Him. Little Red goes for a physical attack – and unexpectedly succeeded! William gets slapped against a wall, LR gets the same, but not after he had lost the better part of a hand. Lisette drops the mental link, and goes for a full blown TRUMPFUCKINGJAM. Back in the room with Oberon, LR drops the Skull Clap on him – jolting him to the point where William could stick him with his sword. William gets swatted into the wall HARD. Goes to kill LR, with his other hand, Draco distracts Oberon, long enough for Eric to arrive and start to fight.

Eric goes full offensive and Oberon was seriously geeked up at that point, and as Eric begins to cut him down, Brand arrives to keep the curse un-uttered. We find out that he ‘ate’ Gerard, and was hiding out since Vol went down. Eric goes and walks the Pattern, goes on a Horny Pattern Master Level Sexual escapade – with Grace.

William gets put back together – and is advised to not use his head for anything important – which shouldn’t be too hard.

Mostly Gerard stuff – pretty much mundane things with the exception of Trumps – Family Trumps as well as one to his lab in a rich country filled with rich evil bastards that do what they wanted to do, because they were rich.

Tally -

Benedict – Alive and in Japan
Eric – Banging Grace
Corwin – Dead
Dierdre – Alive and wishing she could have chopped Daddy in mincemeat
Caine – Comes back and visits, saying good work.
Fiona – Visits – because it was Gerard, and now Pattern Master of Vol’s old Pattern
Blaise – Almost walking and regaining use of the replacement limbs
LLewella – Working for Moire
Brand – There at the end – kept the curse from settling
Florimel – Looking after things
Julian – Pattern Master of the Forest Pattern
Gerard – Dead and eaten by Oberon
Random – Married to Vialle

Visit Lab and see what Dickery was there. Find a Trump of Dworkin that actually works – and contact him – pass out for awhile and then a good conversation with Dworkin with Night in Otherworld.

LR Joins – shares his thoughts on the Death of Oberon. We agree to arrange entertainment for Dworkin.

William is having a tete-a-tete with Eric. Discussion of various things – Mother walking pattern, fertility restoration.

LR and Lisette discussing haul of things – agree to burn cache of Elder body parts which Oberon had so that he could have duplicated any Elder.

Aula and Gauis come back from vacation. Aula has gotten her backlog done. They need to have a discussion with their mother (Claudia) about what to do with Octavia. She’s also a little sick of Bohemian living, wants to explore the universe. Gaius is being sent out to review the troops. Figure she needs to put the slacker to work after he’s been off on vacation for two years.

Little Red learns that he can ‘bar’ individuals from his realm – apparently new information for him.

Back to Gauis. He’s concentrating on making a suit of silk armor. After mucking about with Mom-stuff, he’s freed up. Now the plan is to muck work (Prince/General/Inspector General) for a week or so.

Little Red going back to Amber – got a call from Eric – Twisk caused some problems. Unintentionally of course.

Lisette is going to help Flora get her backlog done, need Trumps of Caine, Eric, Dierdre, lots of Elves(30), extra Flora’s, Gerard. Aula just got press ganged into creating some of the Trumps needed as well.

Gauis is tagging along with Little Red.

Twisk is, annoyingly, hooking up with Eric and not a safe target for Little Red’s ire. For now. Apparently Twisk found Jandar – in a desert as a statue. Got him freed, but in the process, apparently managed to piss off Yagamar, Jandar’s petrifier. [Twisk wandered into Jandar’s homeworld centuries*?* ago, had an affair, came back and found he’d been petrified - and his spirit sent to a hell -, failed to disenchant him, came back many years later (expecting the wizard responsible would be dead), failed again, and took advantage of William and his recruits to drag J away and free him.]

Jandar, after centuries (?) in hell, is on board with the killing of the Yagamar. Little Red would like to recruit Jandar to lead his National Army. Jandar is more suited for the job than the forest one he has. He just owes the other people that got him out of there rescue. Signs up.

LR’s concern now, is that how much did this piss off Yagamar?

Gaius is now shmoozing Deirdre’s gang of elf chicks who are – challenged for male companionship that is erudite enough. Or funny. Or cute. Though alcohol is helping. Drinking with the the girls. Deirdre shares a strange liquor made for Amberites and their particular constitution. Debating the merits of nailing his Aunt, which is a big fat No. However – elf poontang is in season – and someone else is too. Dierdre talks up Gauis to her companions. All of the elves were recruited from those who had been punished fairly severely in some form or fashion. Gauis got one, who didn’t want to share, but who is a good shapeshifter. [Most of the fae recruits had been transformed into trees, animals, drooling idiots and the like. Newly freed, they’re a lot like folk just released from prison.]

Little Red is going Gold shopping. Decides the hit the Federal Reserve in a shadow of Manhattan, after a Neutron Strike. Runs off with two 5-ton truckloads Trumped to Shadizar. (Tiring much.) Financing a national army, or most anything else, will not be a problem. Jandar has a serious (terminal) qualms about supporting a god-king as his world and family have a nasty history with such. LR takes him on a tour where Jandar sees that his new boss is actually popular some places (especially with the ‘Mormons’), spurns ceremony and ass-kissing, and that the religious observances consist of quick prayers before using magic. “They say the prayer, and they get the power, or else bad things happen.”

Jandar tells Little Red of his homeworld’s God-King Orokan - Real dickish God-King, wanted adulation and all praise, and wasn’t about to let a little thing like human sacrifice and blood letting stand in his way to get it. Jandar’s ancestor assassinated Orokan, using a weapon provided by a mysterious rival. Orokan had a title in a dead language LR recognizes as Thari. LR explains his plans.

Jandar signs up for revenge on Yagamar. Turns him loose on the remnants of the world that aren’t under his control. Discussing ways to get most of the people to follow him as opposed to how they are fighting amongst each other. Logistics to be worked later. Jandar says a war against nations of fanatics would be devastating — can LRed take out the leadership, both divine and human? [J also introduces the term ‘daemon’ = powerful spirit, which LR adopts. Shadizar’s gods are daemon-gods. LR is a living god. Yagamar’s world, in Jandar’s time, had lost the technique of effective — godly-mantle-producing — prayer.]

Gauis is patrolling elves, or trolling as it were. Found an Erl-Tiger. Green Tiger/Black Stripes. Sapient, and doesn’t take the oath. Gauis changes to wolf and wants to chase him up a tree. Tiger not impressed and Gauis slams him into a tree. Swore fealty, and is very excited to be part of the team. Helping Amber’s royalty out and not be killed.

Continuing patrol in Arden (the one next to Amber) – strong reptilian smell. Could be a Dragon. Checking out turns out to be a non-winged dragon variety, working south, towards Amber. Scarred, storm houndish in nature. Could be an old foe of Julian. Snorts smoke. Contacts Julian, gets some pointers on how to take it down. Marshaling forces to work on how to beat on it.

Dragon attack. Gauis was able to kill the dragon, without taking any permanent casualties. Reports to Dierdre, she changes the orders of the patrol. Probably will have more things that will start to invade since Julian is gone.

Lisette is happy being a mom, bonding with her daughters, and generally practicing conjuration. Floimel has debarked to Florence to work on assignments from Eric – lots of new faces in forest of Arden need Trumps.

Report comes in that a Conjurer reports that his wife and six year old son are missing. Last assigned mid-Seattle shopping trip. Personal trip – they live there. Never got back from the trip. Florimel met him once. Good Conjurer, almost able to help himself. Well liked. Brought to Lisette, especially when children go missing. Lisette is high powered enough to burn through the interference to at least get to the trail and follow. Find chanting man, frozen in a mind lock before he can reach the kid. Silver wire for the mother to serve as a conduit for terror and pain from observing that her son getting killed.

The conjurer had a real ego, didn’t tell any others about the spell, Lisette is getting the child into the sorcery school. Lisette also gets the family most of the way into the inner circle of things.

On to do list – Police the BBS groups to stop magical cults from rising. Bel had come in to watch the girls and have a little one-on-one time with them.

Retires back to Paris, visits with Bel. Going to Florence to help with backlog.

Little Red, going about wiping out Daemons [formed from a universal/monotheistic god who had shattered due to rampant sectarianism, becoming seven gods determined to eliminate each other] that don’t share his vision, really fighting amongst themselves instead of joining the team. Assembling a replacement pantheon. Sending in change via dreams. He got them all dreaming the same seven part epic mini-series. The old gods were the first against the wall when the revolution came.

Previously recruited gods observed at a distance. Yep: Total surrender was the way to go.

Little Red, William, Lisette (plus two), Brand, Harry, and Caine are at the Magma pool. Trying to investigate the surroundings. It is a disposal site. More than likely linked through a trump. We are setting up booby traps. With poison. And spikes. And springs, and acids… In other words, it’s a real mess if you don’t know about the stuff here.

Lisette going back to Earth, presumably to take a load off. Flora is off doing things for Eric, diplomatic stuff. Lisette brings up issues with the running of countries that she would like to get taken care of. Essentially a “Nesting” process on a global scale. She wants people to be happy, but really wishes to get the rampant greed and corruption in National Government. Flora suggests getting desired legislation passed via bribery, blackmail and/or threats. The Organization has extensive files for that. Changes of heart, so to speak, could often be managed by sending repeated nightmares. Lisette adds ‘sudden deaths’ to the toolbox.

William has a nice quiet dinner with Caine. Shop talk, (poisons, destruction of villages, etc.) Now speaking with Eric. Offering William positions in the government – Hey – BE A GENERAL! HEY – BE A PRINCE!! Prince Consort in Rebma is what he is hoping for, but the position doesn’t exist yet. (It’s a culture thing) Anyways – Eric at this point, should be aware of the Bleys situation. (Via a squealing Lisette to Flora to Eric)

Little Red – heading back to Shadeeza (point of entry from the Amber High Road – also from where his mom and Big Reds mom came from) Shadizar. Going to put in some time to get it up and working better, or as he sees fit.

In his words, “I inherited a fixer upper, but I don’t want to disappoint my parents memory by burning it for the insurance money.”

Little Red’s research, “If I Gem a Spellcaster, can I get them to fill racks?” He is using this to put together a number of things. He wants robots filling racks. So he goes to do that.

Now is looking for wizards, allies, for at least the foreseeable future. He has a proposal. Come with me if you want to live, he really wants all the magical energy of the world. Got about half of the worlds power (Malevolent Laughter). Now getting the wizards out of there. Relocating Wizard colony on Rufus Minoria. (Greek/Italian City States in Shadizar). Lessons Learned.

Lisette is recuperating at home (Paris) awaiting the blessed birth of her twin girls.

William, in the meantime is contracting with Twisk to get some Fae on his payroll. He has trees. (Good reason). Recruiting for Eric for the Amber Arden forest. Got about 33, 13 pretty good fighters (Really good by fairy standards) by sashaying into a dozen faery domains where Twisk is persona non grata and stealing out-of-favor — bespelled, cursed, transformed, abused — courtiers. The faeries’ job is to live in Arden and keep it safe, keep the king informed of what goes on there, not cause too much trouble. Eric, Deirdre and Caine reinforce William’s demonstration of why their new bosses should be taken seriously. Flora is inundated by Trump orders and requests. Twisk sticks around a bit to ‘consult with the king on faery custom’; closely; in private.

Lisette – it’s happening NOW!

Paris Town House has the most impressive security that has been conceived. Flora Trumps back. Bel is in attendance, Little Red expressed an interest in being present. Gaius is there as well. William is also invited. The house is prepped with the latest medical devices and trained personnel. Lisette is focusing on staying calm, and thinking good thoughts about an easy and safe delivery of her twin daughters.

Little Red gets a wild hair and researches zero-point energy devices – also known as bombs, making sure that Oberon doesn’t get a wild hair and decide to blow everything up on earth at one time. Fiona pulls LR through to her ZPE-powered orbital, rotating space station. She fabs out some cheat sheets on precursor technologies to watch for and shows him both the ZPE generator and a 30-megaton bomb (cantaloupe sized) so he can get a feel for them, magically. ZPE is tricky. Worlds that develop it usually end up as lifeless rockballs or as a asteroid belts. ZPE generators are especially tricky. With considerable variation between different shadows. ZPE is a possible thing on both Earth and Shadizar. LR Trumps back and discusses bootstrapping a space program with magic, Pattern and Trumps with Florimel and, between contractions and via intercom, Lisette.

Angeline and Annette – are born, and after a hearty announcing of their presence to the world, this calms down when their mother pulls them in close, and begins to nurse them. The air gets thick as the objects in the room want to come alive to help as well. Anyways – she will be busy keeping two beautiful children calm enough so that she can do things as well as be a parent.

Vialle’s destination shadow is a Renaissancesque world with lots of magic. They name it Amalfi after the first town they come to. Random has acquired saddle bags full of unmarked gold ingots along the way. V&R rent a villa and V, LR and Will magic up defenses. The local Number One wizard objects to the drain on the ley line (or to their existence) with a cloud of carnivorous locusts; he and his do not survive the mistake. Other local wizards are extremely cooperative after that.

Gaius and Aula move to the city with the best artists.

Little Red goes north and takes a castle for a base, eliminating the nasty sorcerer-Graf there in the process. (Vialle had requested LR confine his experiments to Bad People.)

William finds a nice town fore his work.

Aula and Gaius — see Gaius’ post.

Lisette catches up on her Trump making, starting with Vialle. Then Bel Trumps in and they take an extended vacation. Lisette wants to get married. Bel tells her that Empress is a job and a religious post… the populace would expect the God-Emperor’s wife to be a goddess as well. And being a deity means one is affected by the expectations and desires of his or her worshippers. Lisette is willing to accept the burden. They’ll have to design he cult carefully.

Little Red starts by experimenting with ley lines and finds he can shift one, slowly, by moving a lot of ghosts around. Then he investigates the details of how creating/finding a new shadow: the walk towards it sets up process in the Tree so that when one takes the final step it the details (heavily influenced by nearby shadows) crystallize into reality. Then LR starts the slow process of discovering the art and science of personality alteration by trial and error, one Bad Person at a time. As most lower class Bad People are executed pdq he’s perforce mostly preying on the upper classes where they are not uncommon. After a time the local region is starting to become a better place to live. People come to him from all around to tell him about their own oppressors. The work proceeds. Two years in, he’s got it. Sadly, Pattern based abilities, including Trump, do not survive being gemmed. [FYI, Big Red’s Pattern powers did not survive the loss of his Pattern-ghost body. He could walk one again but they aren’t really designed to affect the Otherworld so he has other priorities.]

William designs, makes, redesigns & improves a wide variety of useful amulets and gadgets. He manages to replicate the ‘Rebma effect’ that protects against drowning, water pressure, cold and pruniness. He starts work on designing a jhereg (Brust’s work is a shadow of Will’s…). Will is pleased with the result.
Moire arrives for a nice, month-long vacation. They have a fine time wining, dining, hunting, gambling… William learns that Moire’s daughter Ellonwy wants a dog. He designs one that combines the best physical features of canines and otters. The only awkward thing is that William would like to have some sort of formal position in Tir fo Thune. TfT does not have prince-consorts in its lexicon. Any child a queen has is, obviously, hers so legitimacy is not a even a native concept. TfTans are used to the ‘position’ of ‘guy (usually) the Queen is banging’. Moire can give him a military or a consulting position…

Vialle has occasional bad days - the others can feel it many miles away.

William finishes and leaves first. He visits the Pattern Formally Mastered By Vall and finds a Vall-spawn male named Harald there studying Fiona’s posted offer and Trump monolith. William recruits him. Another, female Valler watches from a comfortable distance and later talks, at a distance. She’s Tevya (the admiral who got away) and informs William that she has no vendetta against Amber or Tir fo Thune or Bel. Not a joiner. She prefers to find her own fortune, thank you very much.

Lisette hits eight months plus and Trumps to Earth. Every possible comfort is arranged, every contingency covered. The elementals of Earth are ecstatic.

Little Red eventually (two years and a couple of weeks in) takes the time to interrogate the Vall spawn he gemmed in Amber. The primary useful intelligence is that Bleys was captured. Vall had Bleys’ arms and legs removed and the stumps sealed. They studied Bleys’ Trumps and worked out how to jam them. A carrying case was made up with Bleys’, Fiona’s and Brand’s Trumps affixed along with magical artifacts to block all three and magical batteries to run them. Bleys was watered, fed and hosed off irregularly. Bleys and his case were probably just abandoned when Vall died. Well, shit.
LR Trumps his father, Brand. Brand puts his interest in this gemming stuff on hold. Bleys is still jammed, or at least. Fiona’s brought in. She’s jammed. LR’s technique, even backed by dad and auntie, is insufficient… Brand is not fully in control of his rage and Fi is barely holding it together. LR consults Lisette, an uninvolved Trump Artist. Lis says they couldn’t have her Trump. She comes to them (very pregnant), accompanied by Bel. She breaks through and Brand pulls Bleys — emaciated, dehydrated, comatose — through. After mystic first aid, Fiona has to leave to vent. Lisette leaves. LR and Brand take Bleys to Shadeeza. Fiona joins them. Bleys recovers enough to talk. LR offers to gem him, then take him to the Otherworld for a new body like Big Red. Bleys declines. Fiona leads them on the Starry Path to the Otherworld. LR Trumps BR. Night shows up. Arrangements are made: a expert Maker healer, Kilisandra, plants Bleys, head out, in a mound near the Tree; limb regeneration is a standard procedure. Fi and Brand arrange a pavilion and trade off shifts watching Bleys.

Lisette, back on Earth, is shocked by by the death of Martin, who attacked Girard — and whom Girard killed in turn. No trump fuckery, no magic fuckery, and we can’t gem or speak with dead anybody because all the souls have departed. This is because of a new enchantment on Martin’s sword, which was placed in the last couple of days. Girard reports that when he slugged Martin, it ripped loose some of the shapeshifter-patches inside him, and when he broke Martin’s neck, he passed out. We had to interrogate him by mental contact because he hadn’t come to.

Girard is transfered to Shadizar to recover.

Tracing Martin’s sword, we find the original in a pool of lava that was maintained Oberon-style. There’s something we’re missing . . .

And, of course, all Our Heroes practiced their new Drought of Inspiration-augmented powers and abilities.

Assisting with the security and preperation of our trip to a fast shadow, Random takes care of alot of the details as we shadow walk, Gold…clothing…etc…
arrive at a place called Amalfi, Italy spinoff shadow. Magic is prevalent as well as all the different things that everyone wanted for the next 300 to 600 or so days.

Assist in renting a villa and setting up Vialle and Random there, On a ley-line and we draw an objection once we start to pull power from it. THe keep across the bay is the home of a mage and he sends carniverous grasshoppers after us, but we felt his preperations and cut him off at the knees… probablity tricks to ensure the grasshoppers eat each other, then sending Gaius and William in to kick down doors and take names. other local mages arrive the next day and are much more polite and amenable to being paid.

Gaius and Aula head off to an artists dream city, about 80 miles from Vialle and Randoms place. They rent a Villa together and Gaius sets up security with mostly local talent, but brings in a team of werewolf leaders. one Lieutenant and a pair of Sergeants to run security. Aula goes bohemian artist and there are hot and cold running parties and art discussions on a continual basis after that. She also “disappears” some people who had been taking advantage of some of her new friends, including a son of a local politico who liked to force young servant/peasant girls as a bonus of his noblility.. Aula bit him…seriously!

(bodies are trumped to a hidden cave which Aula had Gaius find first thing off, and disposed of there..down an old abandoned mineshaft)

Some time later the Villa is attacked by a force of Mercs and assasins, paid by the father of a certain missing noble. Gaius and the were’s take down the attempt with little trouble, trying to kill as little as possible on Gaius’s order. Gaius then sends the survivors back to their leaders (Italian Mob, Mercanaries, and assasin guild)
with compliments and a request to not take more jobs against him or his sister (implied is the promise of payment, and the threat of possible destruction)
The Noble Father/Councilman is abducted by a werewolf and then flown away by Gaius in a huge eagle form. Gaius takes him to a Middle Eastern city a long ways away, Flying and shadowshifting to get there. He is sold into slavery for a silver piece (robbery) and specifically to a sodomizing asshole, for some “shoe is on the other foot” payback.

Aula spends her time being a bohemian artist, and improves her Trump Artistry..Gaius also exercises her and makes sure she eats occaisionally. She was involved in the fracas of the assasination attempt and took a minor wound, by by being slow. Gaius “helps” her speed back up again…

Gaius spends his time enjoying the bohemian lifestyle and bohemian ladies. along with learning to play Guitar (saw on earth and liked better than the Reman Lute) Music and Dancing and Nights of Passion…oh my!
He also spends time working with some serious bodybuilders to increase his Strength, And running the woods as a were and learning some new animal forms, Takes Zoology training to learn more about animals and animal capabilities, currently cannot shrink and spends most of his time learning some LARGE animal forms and mostly Predators.
He also spends some time learning cabinet making and crafts a Trio of Fine Cabinets for Aula to turn into Trump targets for himself, herself, and Mom.

((gaius spent his bonus stuff on Str7, Unlimited animal shapes, a trick to increase his warfare while “ghosted”) (and some skills to increase his knowledge)) the points from THIS solo (2) will go to Shrinking….

Saturday Jun 16th game
“Vall spawn” flee from battle after they feel Vall’s Death.
Little Red and Will Teleport over to close shadow paths created in the invasion. Some other amber groups go to other portals. Little Red and Will feel someone teleport near the portal that Little Red is closing. Vall troops are still pouring out the portal. A “Tiger” heads towards the portal. Will hits it with a dagger with paralytic poison on it, subduing her (with some work). They spot another spawn that is flying and Will hits him with a dagger as well. Little Red closes a Shadow path. Some other defenders pretend to be Vall and usher some of the enemy back through the portals. Little Red and Will track another spawn fleeing through shadow. We capture him. Little Red and Will captured 3 Vall spawn while the rest of the amber defenders captured 7.

Fiona takes over her pattern and the elementals love her and heal her wounds. Fiona creates a trump out of rock as notice for anyone who would like to walk her pattern.

[Fiona returns to The Pattern Formerly Mastered By Vall. The local elementals go all-out to make friends by healing her of her remaining burns and ocular damage. She seems to be both appreciative and amused.

Fiona alters the rules to Fiona’s Pattern: whomever she wishes may walk it, she says. She then raises a monolith, smooths a side and engraves a Trump on it with an enchanted fingernail. When finished she writes an invitation above it in Thari, inviting parties interested in walking her Pattern to Trump through and interview for the privilege. Lisette takes the opportunity to walk Fiona’s pattern – Gotta catch them all!!!

Fi thanks Gaius & company for the help and dismisses them. She’ll be acquiring underlings from a position of power, comfort and safety. When — if — she returns she’ll bring her own army.]

Vall spawn attack the Shadow Deiga. They are failing in there attack and the Vall spawn flee. We all get together and chase one ship that is running away with a large storm around it. We are lent a ship form Deiga to chase them down. We use elementals and probability to catch and immobilize the ship we are chasing. We find one dead Vall spawn and find out that the other one fled. We fail in catching the other one. On the ship Lisette frees 2 storm fey which promise to grant her a favor in the future (which they never expect to grant). Little Red gems the dead Vall spawn about 50% successfully. We head back to Deiga with the survivors of both ships.

[The attack fails when all the zombies wake up, get a clue and go apeshit on their former masters.

They chase the Vallspawn admiral who, unlike most of her siblings, has an exit plan. Exit Plan A — sail away fast with slaved storm-fae providing perfect winds — falls to probability tricks. Plan B — shapeshift into a fish and wait for the pursuers to go away — works. Shapeshift to Any Animal + SS Aura: 8 points of pure gold for the former admiral.]

We make preparations for our gifts and entertainment for Night. We meet up and Lisette trumps Night. We present her with our gifts. Little Red prepared a banquet with magically mutated meat and vegetables. Makers come to join the festivities. Gaius gives Night a deed and a trump to a villa in Rema (not sure the spelling). Lisette shows them plays [she rented the Royal Shakespeare Company] and also gives Night 2 trumps of places in Earth. It is decided that Night will get a hold of Will when she is ready to take part on his outing designed for her. Night then takes us through her castle to the draught of inspiration. We each take a drink and are changed for ever!!!

[All four are all World Class Bards, capable of whipping up verse in minutes in any style they are familiar with. Given time to prep they can make an audience, cheer, weep and laugh. Plus several points of Inspiration good for most Attributes and/or any Power. They’ll need some practice time/training to practice said gains into usefulness.]

We then decide to go to a sped up shadow created by a pattern master. (I am a little unclear on what was finally decided with this part)
[Gaius, hearing of William’s 100:1 fast time feat suggests to Vialle-Inanna that his sister could become a very useful Trump Artist in jiff time practicing somewhere at the better-than-that time ration a Pattern Mistress (with a high Psyche) could manage. Vialle likes the idea and could really use some time to meditate (read: solidify her dominance in the Vialle-Inanna psyche) and rest. Random has suggestions for the shadow’s R&R specs. William and Little Red invite themselves along thinking about lots of time for Conjuring and research. Lisette jumps on the bandwagon thinking about tons of leisurely time for Trump making, gestation and talking about relationships with Bel.

Vialle and Random are bemused but not adverse: this shadow will have to be in the Middle Realms because Heaven is not geared for shadow creation any more than the Otherworld is, and tag-alongs = backup if there is trouble. Also: it’ll be a whole planet; they won’t be crowding each other. Vialle figures she can manage maybe 300:1 for a day or two PSTR*, with a day or two to get there. Anyone can Trump out at any time.

MAJORRETCON: WILLIAMWASINVOLVED. INSERTWILLIAMWITH (W)(retcon, Fiona walks Julians pattern at the end of the last session, Trains any conjurors (W) in detecting different things quickly when arriving in a shadow…(like whether Nukes work, and if there are MEGA elementals close by)

Vialle [she wants to be called ‘Vialle’] spends time relaxing and thinking, then goes to her pattern and attempts something that fails, comes to rest and asks Random and Gaius if they have ties to shadows that she can use as anchors.
She conjures more stone plinths which we decorate with our blood, and she uses these as anchors to the real amber universe. She looks surprised, then tells us she didnt see that coming…turns off the trump blocker stones. She transports us to the other side of the Moon from her pattern…after we move away from her pattern a couple miles. She tells us she recreated a portion of the God Home level of reality. We cannot shadow walk from here but can Trump. Starpath will work..so she says not to worry about me messaging Night as she should be here momentarily… then pops us back to her pattern and conjures lounge chairs and drinks in anticipation..

2 hours later Night arrives, on frostmane with another frostmane scion and a woman. 7’ tall , very muscular. Vialle gets up and welcomes Night, who picks her up and hugs her, mental communion ensues, and Night says she is relatively sane too. Night introduces Iron Knife, the 7’ woman who is a bit off…Heavyier than she should be. Who says its about time we moved to remove Oberon, and show some backbone. Gaius asks “what assistance can she be then?” she says she will not be killing any of her sisters children any time soon. More discussion ensues then she pats Gaius in approval (almost knocks him down) and goes over to one of the plinths and splits it in half with her blade. [The sister is Iron Staff, Oberon’s mother. They’re taking a hand at the urging of a third sister who is one of the petrified Seven who… modulate? the Tree of Creation. The Sisters’ usual, eternal job is maintaining the machinery that grinds the Elder God Who Invented Matter into ur-matter to expand the Otherworld and feed the Tree. Ur-matter because ‘proto-matter’ is taken. The stone sister has had Just About Enough of Vall’s antics.]

Suddenly Random AND Gaius are innundated with Trump calls..Gaius takes Little Reds who asks if He is responsible…as if, then asks if what happened was Valls fault, which i tell him is a negative, and he hangs up. Then Gaius answers a callfrom MOM…who wants to know if he is well. He briefs her on the what is going on. And his ideas about sister and having Innana owe us..or at least come to us for Trumps.
Mom wants to come thru so we get full introductions, etc..

Little Red is calling Erik and warns him that I was resonsible in realeasing Inanna and LR is NOT at fault.

Random is telling his line that ERIK is first then Fiona and Brand cut in front and refuse to wait. Night walks over and cuts in on Everyone and says “He will talk to you later” and cuts him off

Gaius gets another call, this time its Brand, who wants to know who cut him off from Random. I tell him, and he says there is something wrong (puzzling) about the place were at, i ask premission then pull him thru.

He bows to Vialle/Inanna, bows all the important people. Then chats with vialle about how she did this, then wanders off and calls LR to come, pulls him thru. And has him open his senses…Vialle rebuilt or resurrected a bit of the Godhome here, they discuss moving or buiding in this area after we win a couple wars.

Erik gets contacted, Night and Iron Knife are going to trump to him directly, Frostmane and his kid will head off on thier own. Random tells Gaius they think they want to do this Speed thing VERY soon.

Lisette is doing trumps and Bel. She pops over to Earth for something and runs into Twisk (elf fey cousin), who sniffs Lisette and tells her she is pregnant.

Gaius calls Lisette to arrange a meeting with Bel, to pass along the message given him by Inanna.
She is heading off to get Bel and will call back in a min, Gaius heads off to warn Inanna. Lisette trumps Bel and gets pulled thru, she briefs him about being Pregnant. Happiness ensues, then she tells him about Vialle and she blames Gaius for being the one who brought her back, HE says she is overestimating Gaius and under underestimating Inanna, and asks if Gauis is changed, She says Gaius is the same Dull Cretin that he always was.

Lisette calls Gaius on the trump, he gets a severe headache (angry trump, better psyche). Hands off to Bel who gets pulled thru along with Lisette. He heads over to Inanna, who out front tells him she needs a divorce. He agrees pleasantly, and asks who she wants to officiate, the God or Goddess of marriage. We are all witnesses. Official Divorce Ceremony ensues (a ritual of some mystic significance when it involves gods of marriage) and halfway thru Brand shows up to watch the power show. (drawn by the power) LR comes too.
Inanna hands Gaius a witchlight, then teleports him off to the Palace for Food, Drink, etc..just crush the light to come back…he has a pair of BIG baskets when he returns. A Reception is arranged after.

Brand and LR are discussing power in the universe again… Brand wanders off again sensing the power and functions of the area, the world orbits the moon, EVERYTHING orbits this moon. [The moon rotates daily, the planet orbits it — rotating daily too — monthly and the star-thing orbits both perhaps yearly.]

Vialle asks Lisette not to make any Trumps of this place without permission. Lisette tells her she wouldnt without permission anyway. Lisette also tells her that Brand might be one to warn not to also.

Oberon is barred from the Starry Path, according to Inanna…

We trump Night and pass along the request from us to Night about the Well of Inspiration…she agrees and we prepare to travel with Night to Amber then on to her palace, AFTER we gather “gifts”. “Surprise me,” she said.
We discuss the ability to speed up a shadow to God level speed…LR chats with Inanna on ways to “convice” people to change loyalties. Looking to gain the skill during the Speed Shadow.

Ideas bandied about for ideas for Gifts…

LR gives Gaius some items, WMD detectors, etc…

We head to Amber with Night…Iron Knife and Iron Staff (oberon’s mother) and will set up a surprise for Vall if he shows up in Amber. Iron Knife bashes a snarky Caine into the wall a few times to encourage him to respect his elders, then Gerard kisses the walls too when he walks in and goes to his brothers defense. Gerard is a bit shocked. Iron Knife pats Gerard on the shoulder approvingly: he’s a “nice sturdy boy.” Eric gets briefed by Gaius on what happened to Tir, full story not tidbits. Frostmane arrives with his kid, then Caine and Dierdre want to go too so we wind up riding double, heading for the Underworld.

Lisette is celebrating the divorce with Bel and heading off to Earth to gather her “gift” (as an aside AIDS is dead, the entire viral species cursed by her)— some performances of Shakespeare’s hits in the Otherworld by the Royal Shakespearean Company. Along with money Lisette’s people promise miracles if needed; Lisette has someone’s father cured of cancer to build credit).
Lisette hints to Bel that she WANTS to get married…they Discuss marriage and its ramifications for Bel as a GOD of Marriage. They table the question with him asurring her that he is not going to run off and marry someone else. They discuss raising the child and having it in fast time.

Gaius wants to walk shadow for Plants that have Aphrodesiac scent, along with scents that please and relax.
Chats with Mom and determines that he should Give Night a personal Villa in Rema, with a Trump of it for ease of access. (Mom decorates since Gaius’s choice of decor would be inappropriate for a woman.) (Cult of Nox…Night as Minor goddes HERE on Rema and has a Minor Mantle here. Or will when they change the rituals.)

Little Red makes doubles and has them running around searching for Goodies (foods from plants and animals altered by magic and therefor not built to Maker plans)…gets volunteers for his Soul Gem project, Makes some lovely jewelry from gems. He gets alot of goodies and Cooks to fix the special dishes. Brand Trumps LR , he is happy with how the first “Search and Destroy” mission went well. Brand Fiona and Gerard smoked the controlers and made the likelyhood of the freshly de-zombied army turning on their former captors right up at 100 percent.

Gaius’s Villa is ready, then all get trumped. (Lisette, LR, Gaius, Brand) The Vall game is on in Amber. Brand holds a bridgehead.. for LR who heads off to the Mormons to get an Army, He has to get rid of an opponent first but he can easily negate them. He uses Fire Rain (HOT water), then appears in smoke and fire and chases the opponent off to free up the friendly army.

Lisette goes thru, then Trumps Bel.

Brand and Fiona attack some Floating Manowars (eyes in the air) with mental attacks.
Gaius Trumps thru then trumps Sis to head to the standing guard for a Quick Reaction Unit push thru, then calls Mom to warn her. He starts to head off to set up an end point. The enemy has a flying unit being sent after the guys on the roof, Gaius drops a contingent of defenders on the roof, then preps to defend the roof.

(W) Eric and William head off to help Deirdre on the northern front. They gradually start winning and push into the forest and catch the Otherworlder Professional Dragonslaying Team (Iron Knife and Iron Staff each 30’ tall, Ulrik a mere 20’, covered in blood, guts and brains) in action.

Lisette anchors for Bel who starts sending his kids through.

LR calls his anchor person and says call in an hour and be ready send troops/medical/ammo etc…

Lisette gets Grace and another nasty guard (Rodrigo)to help protect her as she pulls in More of Bel’s kids.

General plans…LR (resume true form Power Words, shoot with air gun), Gaius jumps out to toss shapeshifters off the roof as they shapechange. Gaius’ troops lock shields and shield rush to push some shapeshifters off the roof. Lisette continues to pull people through, with someone calling through to not send humans and Bel coming through himself.

LR runs out of ammo and he starts making earth elementals.

Fiona takes charge and makes hunter strike teams with werewolves and Bel’s kids (mainly Grace and Drake who know the palace) and guardsmen to hunt some of Vals kids who are loose in town.

Since attack spells that might be used to try to whack, say, Oberon don’t work near the palace LR is feeling a little under-gunned. Brand goes to LR and says that “he doesn’t have any extra expendable sons” and pulls out some extra rings with mental contact spells for LR to use. Deathbolts are more fun but pack more variety.

Gaius and the other 4 of his soldiers head down to make sure of the shapeshifters tossed off, doubletaps are the Standard Ops.

LR heads down to find some live shapeshifters before Gaius gets to them.

Lisette calls Night to inform her. She hands frostmane and 2 really large horses, and Orelli and Ulric (Thunder’s daughter and son), and then she steps through. She will stay up top and watch. Fiona grabs a deck from her storage and gives it to Night.

Frostmane takes Brand and Fiona off to the area Julian’s allies have cleared and drops them off, then head back to Night.

LR gathers some enemies and then chooses a dead target to “question the dead” on. Asks questions on tactics codes, location of Vall, etc.. Dead guy is mostly outraged that all these people showed up to help Eric and Amber — what’s their percentage? LR heads back up with Gaius to report, Gaius calls Gerard who is busy and then sees Bel’s kid being pulled through, He gives the were sergeant his trump and says call in a second, then rides a Bels kid though to Bel and Gerard.

Lisette and Night Scry and attack behind the lines. [One can use mental touch spells through this scrying spell, and Power Words through the mental touch.]

Gaius finds out that his sister is here WITH the rest of the combat unit, shortly he sends the last of his defensive troops over to protect her. Then scopes out the tactics and strategy of the combat. He is looking for Val or the Vall spawn who trapped him.(Lorelei)

Gerard gets Stabbed by a guy who’d seemed to be not nearly so formidable, Gaius heads towards him, The stabber is attacked mentally, then he shakes it off. (Amulets flare and die.) He sees Gaius coming and points his blade at him, and moves as fast as Bel or Benedict, Vall has appeared. Bel yells “Brother, Bide a moment,” and heads that way.
Val maintains the blade on gaius and throws a blade at Fiona from a great distance and it accelerates then disitegrates an inch from her which ruins a few of her amulets and still knocks her down. Lisette trumps Gerard and pulls him out.
Vall’s kids formed around him to defend, and a lot are nuking the ridgline where Fiona and Brand And LR are fighting back against at least 20 kids. Fiona switches to using Pattern to deflect attacks, which is just barely possible — for her — a mile and a half from the Pattern; if she isn’t distracted by anything, including standing up.

Gaius ghosts and attacks Vall to pull his attention and give Bel an opening, he stays ghosted to keep from getting killed but draws a lot of attacks from Vall spawn, Lisette attempts an power word attack on Vall which is ineffective, but destroys another amulet.

Gaius tries putting a hand IN Val and gets mentally SMACKED for it. Lisette heads to the ridge to help with the spells. Lewella shows up on the ridge and pulls through alot of Tritons. Then she pulls a bow and begins to shoot into the battle.

Val and Bel are fighting with Gaius trying to distract Val, then everyone on the ridge hits Val at the same time (direct sorcerous attack being ineffective, Brand projects an opaque lightg-ball around Vall’s head) which creates enough time for Gaius to jump on Val and knock him into Bel who rams a dirk under Val’s chin and through his brain, and twists it, a lot. Then some leader types of Vall’s Spawn yell “attack” and fade; almost all of Val’’s living spawn are smart enough to pull a runner.

[Meanwhile, in the forest, Iron Knife, Iron Staff and Ulrik have been killing most of the dragons and such in Vall’s forces. And Eric and Deirdre have been working the other front in the battle. Orelli on her divine horse have been galloping around the battle at sports car speed lancing and stomping.]

Half the werewolves are dead, some of LR’s troops, some of Bel’s kids. A lot of the Amber troops are dead or hurt.

After deliberation we all decide Fiona will attemt to take Vall’s pattern. Then maybe pass it to Bleys or maybe Benedict. [The main point in LR’s and Lisette’s dis-favor is that the Pattern Master will have to hold it against some or most of Vall’s surviving spawn.] Night is called to provide transport to the pattern, Gaius is elected to go and be a trump target to pull the other thru. Or we pass a trump to Night to call for help while Orelli and Gaius fight if necessary.

Night uses the starry path to get us there and we find someone walking the pattern. Prime target for a rock. Too bad… one with the universe…
Fiona begins to walk the pattern, Teleports go off and others are flying in.

Gaius shoots a stupid flyer several times at extreme range, Aurelia gets another, closer one with one enchanted arrow.
The rest stay farther away… Fiona finishes after a while, exhausted, calls a staff to her and renews her energy then starts breaking Pattern-twisting stones.

As she breaks the first we get rushed by Val spawn, after she succeeds in breaking the last the spawn all collapse for a while, One smart one who waited just watching, approaches and asks Fi what she did. She answers that she cleaned the pattern, the visitor then stumbles off.
A couple try to swear fealty, which she rejects.

She says this place is a dump and that everyone owes her.

Fi looks for a trumpable object and Night makes her one from a large rock,
She heads home for rest,

Gaius calls mom for 3 legions of were troops, outfitted for extended operations in enemy territory, for guard duty.

Brand tells LR that he needs to gather more strength before doing “that”, then that Fiona will not like the new job very well for long. And to prepare himself to take that pattern if possible, admin and such capabilites will make him a more attractive choice.

Met with Random, told him my dreams and suspicions, he said he would get back with me after talking with Vialle.

Then all heck broke loose with Corwins death, that put my meeting on hold and we didn’t get a chance to get back together till AFTER the funeral. Quite an impressive sight, a royal funeral in the city of Amber. I hope that’s the last one…

Finally met with Random and Vialle together, She has been having similar dreams, dreams of patternwalking and being whole after. Random and her decide its worth the risk, and Random takes off for (Tir-Na-Nogth)? with one of my trumps, once he has it cleared he trumps me and Vialle and I step through.
He has disarmed and tied up the guards, and we are near the pattern room in Tir. Vialle begins walking the pattern, with sure movements, almost as if she can SEE the pattern…though from here i can FEEL it interacting with her. I could almost walk it myself, blindfolded. Random lets out a huge sigh of relief, once she makes it past the first veil, he must have been holding his breath.

Vialle is successful in walking the pattern, and as she finishes the Veil over her eyes is lifted and she turns to look at us(Random)! Then a Psychic Wind from the Pattern blows all of the insubstantial Tir away, though the guards on other floors (tied too) are not dropped, they are all brought to ground level. On a ground a WHOLE lot different from where we started. We are now in a pastoral glade, somewhere ELSE. Gravity is about a third of normal and plants and such a bit different. In the sky is a HUGE world, making me think we are on a moon, that world in the sky is not Earth however.

Vialle begins talking but is whisked away before we gain any information, her face as she disappears is surprised so it wasn’t by her power she left. Random is a bit irritated by this, and after a bit of swearing (i had to take notes, these elders learned alot of swearwords, and alot of different languages) he began freeing the guards while I checked out the area. He got them to agree to serve us since we are a long way from home, and their only ride back. No Trumps work, but we don’t know if that interference was Oberons or something else. so we decide to traipse off away from the pattern to clear the air for better reception.

We all hoof about 20 or so miles, where Random can feel some massive pattern powers being used off in the distance. We instruct the guards to keep following as we are going ahead to see what is going on. And Random and I head for the power, him running at a respectable pace, me switching between 4 legs and 2, eating on the run, only short pauses for water and latrine, Random setting a harsh pace for himself, me running ahead on 4 legs and hunting then switching to 2 to cook.

After 3 days we approach a city, whereupon Random slows his pace and catches his breath. I can use a bit of wind too, since I’ve been scouting on 4 legs all afternoon. There is a building with a dome, sitting approximately in the center of the city, from what we can see as we begin to approach, few guards and citizens, who flee as we come closer… clearing a path to the center? no resistance to our arrival is apparent, though I can feel tentative individuals following as we pass. As we approach the center there is a wide open space in front of the domed building, and drawn up are hundreds of human troops, with crossbows even!, and a group of strange Pale warriors in pairs, there are also what look to be witches or female mages on a dais around a woman with silver hair, Vialle is also there but bound and helpless, but not gagged.

As we begin to approach the silver haired leader calls out to us, “Random is forfeit as he must be cut from that ones life, but you are able to choose (looking at me) you can walk to the side and sit this out or you may die with Random.” (the witch is downwind but I can feel something wrong with her from here) Random turns to me and asks which way I choose to go, and I tell him I figure on his wife being better than these scum, so we turn together to attack, with the strange pale guards pairing off and blocking our approach, Random whispers to me that he’s heard of these beings, called Moonriders of Ghenesh, they are tough but there is a trick with getting their blood on your blade to make them easier to hit, and he says they fade in and out of reality, though the blood should make it easier to hit them phased out.

I just grin and switch to Anthro form.. they were obviously not expecting me to turn into a 9 foot werewolf, and this slows the two moonriders approaching me and I notice that the human army they have is not attacking yet, Random and I go back to back, and we begin fighting these strange beings. He gets the first blood as they don’t want to stay solid for me to claw, so as he finishes the first pair and a second moves in on him, I call “switch” and we trade places…now I have bloody bodies at my feet and he has a blooded blade. I take some scratches as I get my claws wet but then my strikes become alot more effective and I begin to mow down my opponents with relish. The witches however have decided to get involved and cast some kind of web of power which approaches toward us, the Moonriders avoid it so I figure its good for us too…Random sounds like he is holding his own so I call “Heads Up…Full Offensive” to him and begin to push my way towards the dais, with Random keeping my back clear.

This excites several witches, but it also seems to cause a split in the defenders, since half or so of the Moonriders are down. Some of the witches begin working against the others to negate the net, and Vialle is released from her magical bonds by someone, a pair of the Moonriders back off and cross their arms, while we work on finishing the rest. Vialle goes after Silver Hair and locks hands, as I struggle to get closer to help. A Psychic wind from the dais comes into effect, and slows both Random and I to a crawl as the last moonrider falls and we turn to assist Vialle. I tell Random that we have to get the circlet off Vialles’ opponent and ask him if he can fly…he grins and I grab him and launch him into the dais, where he barely gets a swipe in to knock off the circlet(which is the anchor to a Mantle of Power) and he is promptly blown back my way by an explosion of power. So not only do I get to launch him, I get to catch him as well, knocking us both down.

Losing her mantle has turned the tide though and Vialle overcomes her at this point, breaking her hands, and driving out a ghostly being from her body, which is absorbed by Vialle. Vialle then hands her off to some of the witches who are left and goes over and picks up the circlet, she walks up to the front of the dais and puts it on. Announcing to all that she is Inanna.

After some cleanup, and some intimidation by yours truly, who goes over to the army and begins to inspect the troops like a commanding general, still dripping moonrider ichor, and still in 9’ werewolf form.

Random and I are briefed by Inanna/Vialle. She had pulled a Night stunt and “split” herself into good/winning (Vialle) and bad/crazy (wannabe Inanna) so she could get a chance to walk a pattern, she said she did NOT expect to find a scion of Oberon “loveable”. She was interested in making more moonriders…though she wasn’t too keen on the first step being KILLING a master bladesman. I discussed the fact that by tasting their blood, I thought that I could assume a Moonrider type form as an Avatar, so she will probably be looking for MORE shapeshifters. ( I may have to get a few volunteer weres from home for a bit of a test…a unit of ghosting weres would be intimidating.)

She isn’t ready to bring the Moon back in range of Amber and Oberon yet, and the Trumps are blocked on purpose here.. she was interested in getting on the list for some trumps and I discussed how fast she could ramp up a shadow and how long she could keep it there, as a Pattern Owner. My sister might be a candidate for accelerated learning and training. and If I was there with her I could make sure she stayed on track, and have some time to get a couple things done…(we figure she can push 7 amber days to about 1400/200:1/3.8yrs)

She also asked me to Pass along to Night that she’d be ready for a visit soon, and to tell Bel that they need to arrange for a Divorce. (she seems to be planning on Keeping Random around)

Eventually the guards catch up and are waiting around with us.

So until she loosens the trump block, I will work on my new power (3 pt Avatar) Ghost Werewolf. My combat form may be a full wolf, but the intimidation factor is higher in my Anthro form. So a 9’ Werewolf that Ghosts in and out And is resistant to normal weapons, should be terrifying to most opponents we might meet. (7 more points to up that Avatar to a +2 Warfare stunt, 3 then 4)
Phases in and out, flies (slowly-Psyche)

[Inanna essentially shifted her world into the notional remnant or memory of Heaven/Godhome, anchored a bit — periodically — by Amber.

My Moonriders are inspired by/ripped off from the Twins in The Matrix II, though they and most of Inanna-Vialle’s people so far seen look Indian to Middle Eastern to Mediterranean. Moonriders can ghost out, fly about 20-30 mph while ghosted and, with practice (and more points), gain a pretty nifty combat advantage. A live ghoster would have to hold his breath while immaterial; this isn’t a problem for them. Moonriders are pretty good fighters, stronger than humans and trained to fight in pairs and use ghosting to maximum advantage. Also: more dangerous in moonlight.

The Witches all have silvery hair. Inanna A put too much power into Inanna B (Vialle) and eventually became a wraith. The then took to possessing, and using up, the bodies of her top witches. Hence their shift in loyalties.

Getting a divorce is important. She and Bel — mainly Bel — were gods of marriage among other things.]

William spends the beginning of the session justifying a skill point on genetic engineering, with an eye toward ChickieNobs for his happy Utahraptor/Masai followers. He gets it from a shadow that certainly isn’t modeled on Cetaganda. [Partially, yes.] There, at the cost of a few tons of refined metals and a semen sample, he earns a bachelor’s degree in gengineering in under a year, local time or about three days Amber time, since deliberately found a shadow running at 100:1 and kept it that way for a while. Of interest: they keep a squad armed with fungal weapons to try and make sure they’re safe from him, but the “limiting factor” on these little horrors is a specific number of reproductive cycles before they run out of steam. No limit means no stopping them — I’ve got a backup plan for the next Vall logistics base we find.

Lisette spends some time recuperating from helping Bel, Julian, Llewella and Flora drop the Barrier to Bel’s domains. The effort flattened all but Bel and Julian — and they took off when the detected two Big Bads heading for their position. Eric calls her and asks about Gaius. It appears that Gaius, Random and Vialle absconded with Tir-na-Nogth.

Lisette also spends a bit of time making trumps, and negotiating for a blood-trump of Moire. She gets it.

Little Red investigates the Argentovese Empire, a group of people on Shadizar who are centered around an old temple complex and have been working to reclaim the magical deserts that surround their territory. After dropping in to cleanse a pair of contaminated aquifers, Little Red visits the Capitol (Argento) to speak with their Primarch. Her name is Carofila, she’s a nice middle aged lady, and she gives him the dime tour. They work out an arrangement to add Little Red to the worship schedule, and he will bless their work and vet the future candidates for their high office.

Lisette and Bel discuss where the war is headed, and call in the rest of the children to examine the security of Amber. In addition to deciding that search and destroy teams are necessary, the team conducts tests (with Julian) trying to build shadow-paths near patterns — Pattern Masters can initiate at about 1 mile from his own Pattern, or 5 miles from other Patterns; everyone else can do so at 10-20 miles depending on their Psyche. This doesn’t give Amber much defensive depth, but we can only hope that Vall is similarly limited.

These musings are interrupted by a call from Brand saying that Fiona, who has escaped Vall’s custody and wishes to arrange a truce with Eric. The team sets that up, getting Brand and Fiona a meeting at Amber for truce talks.

The terms they agree to are simple: when Vall and Oberon are dead and all the witnesses of the pact know it, one month until all bets are off. [Said witnesses being Eric, Brand, Fiona, Little Red, Julian and Lisette… and maybe one or two others.] Until then, they’ll work with Eric to avenge (or free) Blaze. In addition, they form the nucleus of one of the new Hunter teams, and Fiona teaches a clinic on detecting potential and actual shadow-killing booby-traps both magical and technological.

After the class, Little Red talks Fiona into walking the pattern at Arden in order to ensure she’s her own woman. (Amber is contaminated; Tir-na-Nogth is missing; Rebma is closed to Fiona; Dworkin’s Pattern-between is . . . between; and Bel and Vall are far away, contaminated, and closed). She agrees, and Julian agrees. The walking waits for next session.

William, Lisette, Little Red. Gauis was still running his coked out sister through the woods & and Honey Do’s for his Mom who is posing as the Empress.

o Lisette called by Mom – during small talk time after vigorous sessions with Bel. Earth was sped up to 5x for Trump purposes.
News of the hour –
• Corwin is dead – pulled brain parasite and he went berserk – choked Eric to the point of crushed neck, and Dierdre ran sword through head. Another death chalked up to Oberon.
• Martin in Rebma, begging forgiveness for being a dick and listening to Oberon.
• Fiona not available, even via Trump
• Brand not here, couldn’t Trump Fiona when he was, out with the Red’s
• Benny in Japan, Katsume is blipping in and out.
• Florimel holds the Lamborghini record from Stuttgart to Hamburg

Flora wants Lisette to extend invitation to visit Earth to Bel. She also wants him to meet with the new Pattern Masters, Moire and Julian. (They have days of experience and no training, Bel has millenia of experience.) Lisette will propose the solution to him, and see what he says.

o William is training the ‘boyz’, two bodyguards – spies, one big(Utu)(Triton – Shifter) for Moire, the other unremarkable(Quill)(spy). William is trying to stay on the good side of Moire. Takes them shadow walking first. Going to the world that they are allied with General Ervin.

o Little Red is consolidating Sorcerers in his world. Sent a message to every sorcerer in the Shadow. “I am the Astronomicon, voice of the Universe, Hear me O’ Sorcerers. I am now the source of all magic in the Realm. Bow towards the East, and utter these worlds, “Insert Ritual of the Progenitor’s Here” Person’s not following these directives, will be subject to spontaneous energy release.”

Looking to increase the Mantle for magiking. He also is giving Will the spiders with monkey intelligence. He’s is very fast at building racks and filling same. Building citadel. No hippo motif on the citadel. Hippo Guardians are just the first. Were-orca’s for the sea lanes?

o Back to William. Quill is really damn good at the skulking, thieving around. Utu is good, but not as good as Will. Both are better under the water. Quill has minor conjuration. Both Minor shapeshifters. Utu wants to go to someplace like Juraissic Park to hunt something, Couple of days out and then getting lead back. Found /Polonesians/ [something like a Maori war band] with a boat – wants to take the dino head back. Get back to Rebma, sail into Amber Harbor. Quill says he’ll get them back home after they rest. William is being recognized as the ‘King’s son’. Polynesians are impressed with Amber, but need a courtesy course in decorum. Stay about three days and then load them up with stuff and send them home. Moire is debriefing William about different things that have been happening. No Pattern walking failures so far but one was close: she’ raising the Psyche bar on who she’s allowing to walk her Pattern. Moire recommends William go to see his father. ‘Cause that’s what you do when you are in town, and he’s in town too.

o Lisette is going to talk to Bel and invite him to see Earth. Lisette speaks on the beauty of Earth and the differences between the worlds. He will agree, but needs a day or so. Setting up events and such. Run down to Rio for a day or so, hit the high spots for things. Contacting Flora to get a hold of Julian, then speak to Llewella to speak to Moire and see if she is busy, or can make it to Earth to meet another owner of Pattern. So Bel comes, and relaxes. Sunbathing and such in Rio.

o Little Red blesses Gem cutting and with his big brain, looking to do gem cutting on the gem of people that he captured the Psyche in. Finds out that, sadly there’s no correlation between the parts of the gem and where any given imprisoned spirit, or part of same, is within it. Physically the gems are diamonds formed from local carbon and enchanted up to many times normal hardness. Experimenting to unravel the spirit that is inside the ‘diamond’. Turned him into a ‘proto-elemental’ and then conjured said elemental to animating the matter around it.

o Corwin’s funeral, finds out a few things. Moire introduces Morwyn, Corwin’s and Moire’s daughter, a precocious four year old. Kept under wraps. Eric shocked as well. [Everyone was under the impression that the window of Amberite fertility had closed some time ago.] Afterward, a wake with many stiff drinks all around. Then Dragons happened. One trumped in, and a second was coming. Lisette, Llewella, Brand & Flora forced the second out, and the poor bastard sole dragon stuck in the courtyard (where offensive spells work fine) gets ganged by half the family. Lisette got some impressions from the dying dragons mind, it was Val: he intended to pop 4-5 dragons in as meat shields and then Thrall Amber City personally. Could be Blaise’s deck, who was captured and/or dead, and Fiona was injured in attack and has not been heard of since. Nothing in the story details where and how this attack was carried out. The very toxic dragon is rendered, processed, moved up the mountain and burned via elemental animation by the several family conjurors present – some of the stronger members will be getting a new bow or two out of it, and Lisette got a quart of poison from the Dragon. Lisette also suggests that the courtyard be changed so that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. Eric wants the remains of the Dragon — some clinkers — in an urn. Val seems to be exploring options but has bad luck with timing. Julian was thinking about Val trying different quick and dirty options. Thralls are not the uber powerful thing that he envisioned that they were. They are still effective, but not with someone who is good and powerful that is directly involved on the battlefield, they lose their effectiveness. Folks decided to get balls drunk and then other people wandered away.

o William is now the Warleader of Velociraptors. ADHD raptors. Tribal things – large carnivores and now he is attempting to put together an army. Horse trading is happening – but using spider monkeys and mastodon riders. Apparently William ‘has a nice little shadow’. Going to shadow walk to find the magic ‘meat beans’.

o Little Red is exploring his shadow – getting the lay of the land. Finding some civilizations that are thriving. Building links between civilizations. Putting time into building routes between countries. Iron Age empires. Needs to kill big sea beasties, who are magically engineered weapons of mass destruction, not properly part of the ecology, and in his way. Decides to identify and curse all of them.

o Lisette and Bel are enjoying Earth and cultural experiences. Summit happens – Julian is civil, Moire has her people with her. Pattern master talk happens. Going into the advanced things that can be done. Stealth, Cursing, Scrying, Nullification, Starry Way. All three (and Lis & Flo) go to attempt to lower the Barrier. Using Nullification to lower resistance and wall, Lisette is working with Probability control, but drops, Flora drops, Moire drops to a knee. Julian and Bel finally drop the sucker, and now the migraine is ours to cherish for a job well done. But the Barrier is down. Gathers up everyone and gets out of the area very quickly. Either Val or Oberon were close, Lisette could feel them getting really close. But Trumped back to Earth. Recovery all around.

Will continues to sex Moire, he aquires a new set of trumps…calls for backup! calls
Little Red

Little Red is in Rema, raising earth elementals for guards. Will invites LR to come to an interigation of some child of vall’s…he delays for 3 hours.

Will calls Gaius Furious instead, who decides to quit playing with the rebellion and go abuse vall’s people. He trumps to where Will is in a shadow, where there was a major military battle.
Gaius gets the eyeball for his uniform (roman undress), and meets General Johann Ervin.

Will also calls Lisette to come and interview the Child of Vall. She WAS a bit busy with Bel, but decides to give the poor old man a break, she has to find her clothes so signs off to go get cleaned up and dressed.

Little Red calls Eric since he has the only copy of Will’s Trump, Eric tells him he will call back shortly, then signs off. calls back a bit later, and Eric hands back LR’s trump set that he took earlier. Then LR calls Will to get together with the party, trumps through.

Moire pulls the magic negating headband off Ilrunu (valls kid), who can then concentrate. and questions begin…she tells everything she knows. Lots of info on Vall’s forces, personnel, strengths and (non)weaknesses. LR REALLY wants to stick her (or someone!) in a gem…
lots of discussion of the “blow up” trumps spell….and defense against..

We find out about a supply dump a couple shadow’s away, a raid is planned. The party takes Gen. Ervin, and Moire along to the shadow, the old Shadow Paths are broken, tropical port, one ship steaming away…stopped by Lisette with probability control. We detect a nuke in the port (with a spell) and one on one of the 5 other ships in port. Party then goes after the fleeing cargo ships, one by one, jumping from one to the next.
Ships are captured and Shifted to /German/ ports and short intraworld Shadow Paths to /Leipzig/ and Ervin’s army.

Plans for making an assault on a Battle Node of Val’s ensues, Headin in on a yacht, air elemental spies. Moire is “convinced” to not go along, since her servants are about a second from outright rebellion.
General Ervin decides to not tag along, so the party starts following the chain of shadow paths. Bypassing the minor ports and nodes…

We find the major node, and send in air elementals to scout, they do… then 50 of the enemy’s air elementals come and check on us…we flee after getting an idea of how the place is set up, may have to come back later. Debate ensues as to what we do next.

Will calls Moire about assaulting a magic fortress. She says don’t… Magical defenses, like high tech ones, are best cheaped with Pattern attacks.

We sneak in on the far side of the shadow world, check to see if Bleys was on the shadow (no), then hang spells and conjure elementals and prepare to send in bad vibes at the base. We sneak close, camoflage ourselves with glamours, don goggles enchanted for magical sight, deploy elementals, mind link (surface impressions) by elemental link and pull up easy chairs and start thinking bad thoughts at the base to muck up the whole place…. The goggles let everyone see what’s working or not. We free a huge fire elemental who goes ape doodoo, then the chant of freedom is added in which frees some of the the huge earth elementals supporting the whole base … we feel 3 people using Pattern to get away or outside. (one dies), Gaius shoots one with a blunt arrow, which was a big bat-winged guy. He goes down but doesnt die. Air elementals go after him too, then Gaius and Will take him down with arrows, and LR puts him in a gem. Then we all go after the one that got away,

Gaius tracks the escapee and everyone else follows, he has shapechanged to bird form and is flying just over the treetops through heavily forested shadows — hard do see. He leads us on a wild chase thru shadow before we bring him down. And he gets gemmed too.
We get chased out of the next few shadows by huge arachnids, till we set some huge wasps on the spiders, then we trump away on Lisette’s arachnaphobia… we then go back to the shadow we wrecked the base at and search around a bit for info but everything is ground to dust, burned or buried under megatonnes of rock.

The Crew breaks up for a couple days for R&R, Will heads to Rebma for some fish, Lisette heads off to be De-briefed by Bel, Little Red heads to Earth to catch up with Brand for shadow path training, Gaius heads to Rema for some R&R and to pester his sister for a trump closet.

Will chats with Llewella and Moire about some shadow paths being made, then gets drafted to train some newbs about shadow walking. He gets his shadow paths made by Llewella, which takes a day, then heads back to Rebma. [The paths connect Ervin’s World to the Duke Andred’s World.]

Gaius heads home to bug his sister, who kicks his kneecap. She is frazzled and wants more cocaine from earth. She hasn’t slept in days and coke helps her concentrate.He chats with mom about sis’s health and plots to head out with his sister on a “health” retreat, wolf style. (and as little brother to run her butt off….) playing wolf for a couple days.

Lisette goes and De-pants Bel, pumps him for information. Exchange views on Val’s pattern location, and Val’s mobility and attitudes. She brings Bel up to speed on whats been happening, and what we have been up to. Bel advises that Moire and Julian should exchange info about Pattern Mastery as they’re unlikely to come, hat in hand, to him. Bel later pours her into bed for a week or so of rest. [Vall’s Pattern is in a blasted section of a ruined world. His capitol is wherever he hangs his sword. Bleys is probably with him, rendered incapable of escape by nasty, brutal methods. Vall’s Pattern has been twisted: they have the Thrall Circles effect instead of probability tricks and are both immune to and incapable of Blood Curses.]

Little Red and Brand head out to one of Brand’s hideouts… personal trump deck appears in his pocket, greeted there by big green stripey tigers (like in Arden), in a Burmese looking area. Big palace. Begins training LR on Shadow Paths. Chats with him about returning to his birth shadow, they contact Big Red and then they head there to Recon. In armor. Find the place but it’s been changed [burned, smashed], then they meet a HUGE (3x) hippo, Dances-on-Foes, a Lord of the River who reeks of magic. Who Brand greets and chats with, via trained elemental. Leads the group to a safe place where a few of LR and BR’s relatives are now living. Creates a party atmosphere in the village, meets a bunch of relatives gathered from up-river and hears about something called the “sisterhood” which their mothers were members of. Alot of discussions of the area and local politics… Brand is attacked by Assasins from Yagamar, who are killed by LR and BR. Cross-shadow message drop found and broken. Captive indicates that the Flayer will have the Reds’ families killed. The Reds are concerned. Brand suggests that they either relocate the brothers’ relatives to another world or, if they’re interested, make it theirs. Or one of theirs. LR wants it, BR is happy in the Otherworld and neither thinks sharing is a good idea in the long run. [Yagamar/the Manskinner had the city burned down shortly after abducting the Reds’ mothers. Some of their family members had dreams of doom and about half of them fled the city for a few days, just in case, and survived. So each of the Reds has 20 – 30 cousins, uncles, aunts, etc.] [The Sisterhood is an all-female guild of sorceresses, conjurers and such. They get along better with the River Lords than the male groups do. ]

LR takes over the Shadow as God, gets a kind of disney moment, with big spider things rubbing on him and scary critters gamboling about. The big Hippo Lords are not so happy but LR is willing to work with them, to keep them complacent. (many are collectors of exotic items like books, carvings, music… and all enjoy varying their river-weed based diet.)
LR closes any uncontolled access points from shadow, naturally occuring breaks that Yagamar could use , or sets the giant spider things to guarding those points, hungry giant spider thingies. [The concepts of ‘shifts’ and ‘relief’ are set into the arachnids’ minds. They’re not too bright.]

Lots of parties are going on, and dancing, drumming, singing, much Sex for LR, and BR, AND Brand. [Brand contributes food from his palace. A big party would wipe the locals out.]

Will is quite pleased with his new shadow paths, Gen Ervin suggests Will do SOMETHING about the nomads before someone kills them. The Mammoth Riders are slaves to Will now, and just want to go home! William will have to set them up a place to homestead, and wants them to fight for him if he needs them later, to which they agree. He takes them to a close shadow to Duke Andred’s shadow, so he can find them again.

Gaius and his sister spend a couple days running thru the woods and de-coking her heiny, later back in the capitol he briefs his mom on whats been going on, they talk strategy if Rema gets attacked. Practice sending armies thru trumps as an exercise… Gaius trumps Random and requests a trip to Amber, he chats with Random and tells about the Dreams of Luna/Inanna, then offers to fill in Random AND Vialle, then pleads fatigue and goes to find Grace and hit that hard.

Queen Moire dragged William off to her palace in Shadow Danyel and they shagged their brains out. And talked, dined, and otherwise amused themselves for a couple of days. In Danyel, as in most of Moire’s real estate in shadow, the palace was half underwater, half above. (The founder of the royal line, great-great-x-grandpa, a sea god, had liked the live underwater eating raw fish shit and begat/made a large number of daughters to share in it and entertain him. Perv.)

Moire put forward the proposition that they combine Pattern 101 for her with army acquisition for him. She was going to need a better understanding of what her soon-to-be Pattern initiate subordinates could and could not do. Moire also wanted to try to find out what a Pattern Master could do differently from a normal Pattern initiate. Will accepted and off they went on horseback with 30 royal bodyguards and an extremely modest assortment (by royal standards) of camping gear, armed to the teeth.

William found Moire to be a very talented student. She quickly mastered all of Will’s Pattern tricks and they could then confine their shadowshifting to fast-time worlds. Moire got in some shopping in an Earthlike shadow — a new experience since queens (she said) have things brought to them or made for them.

For his first army Will went looking for an analog of longbow-dominated English armies of the Hundred Years War. Mostly professional, experienced, adaptable and so on. Will impersonated a divine messenger of some sort, proved he wasn’t a demon — unharmed by holy water or signs — and shifted a /British/ army led by one Duke Andred away from overwelming ‘Frog’ /French/ forces. Andred was less than thrilled (why me o lord?) until Will and Moire acquired and forked over a substantial amount of gold coinage. Andred’s army is on retainer.

For their second army Moire suggested they find something already used to fighting something like Vall’s forces. They started shifting and found… an army of WW2 analog mixed European forces, nearly 200,000 strong versus an army of Vall’s forces about 800,000 strong, mostly thralls. They had to watch. Vall’s forces had taken out most of the locals’ ammo dumps and artillery and aircraft, but lost nearly all their usual air support (wyverns and such) and were winning by sheer numbers. The Local commander was very, very good and involved in a fighting retreat through a small city and westward. The thrall-effect felt like a twisted version of probability manipulation (which the Vallites were not using at all) and had three point sources — Vallspawn. Two other vallspawn were acting as battle commander and lieutenant.

Either the shadowshifting that got W&M&Co there or the magic they used to view the battle attracted attention. Several hundred thralls dropped dead, sacrificed for a surge of Mantle of Power type energy, which washed over the rubberneckers and burnt their Trumps up. Will and Moire got away with some minor burns. Moire was Royally ticked: Llewella was going to give her a ton of shit about getting 40-odd Trumps destroyed. “William, darling, do me a favor. Go over there and kill the commander and bring me his head. Or some other body part he or she can’t live without. While I try to do something about all these thralls.”

William took twelve Tritons, everyone armored and equipped with charms against magics and an enchantment doubling their running speed. The first target, two miles away, the subordinate commander, was too heavily armored and enchanted for shuriken, or bullets or shrapnel to have much effect. But the enchantment-rending Unicorn sword in Will’s expert hands, plus pouncing from surprise, took him down pretty easily. The fellows human, Mongol-looking bodyguards left William alone since they took him for another Master - not to be interfered with by the likes of them.

Moire’s ‘boys’ took out an aerial attack aimed at her.

William’s second target was another three miles of sneaking and killing away. This one saw him coming, killed a couple hundred thralls for power, pointed William out as “mine” so that the guards gave him lots of space. And blasted Will. The Unicorn’s sword let William know what to do: cleave the blast. It parted like it had run into an invisible wedge (incinerating dozens to either side) and this fellow was very, very surprised when Will came out of the fire at 50-60 mph and rammed the U-sword through his breastplate and heart… The charms on William limited his damage to a broken wrist, a few broken ribs and lots of bruises. The bodyguards, once again figured that if it hit like a Vall spawn it was a Vall spawn and therefore beyond their pay grade.

Meanwhile, Moire fried one foe’s brain and knocked one out. The last one shifted shadow away when Will killed the commander.

Will and Moire set to making an alliance with the locals’ general (Alliance Grand General Johannes Ervin), making it more likely that the ex-thralls would recover quickly and more completely, and working out how to get ravaged /Europe/ some relief — mostly food — from other shadows. The Alliance would be overjoyed to have allies who could do the things William and Moire could do.

The captured Vallspawn was a woman, Ilrunu. She claimed that Vall’s law was that failure = death, so fuck him. She’d happily cooperate to save her life. Their operations on this particular world were experimental, aimed at learning to deal with high tech opposition. The Trump-burner trick was something that Vall’s researchers had worked out using the Trump deck taken off of Bleys’ corpse. (She wasn’t there, this is what she was told. She didn’t know his name but the description — red hair, deadly swordsman, Amberite — was pretty conclusive.) Moire thought that her researchers could maybe come up with a way to cloak Trump decks so they couldn’t be targeted.

The Vallspawn’s non-thrall forces were mostly Shvenites, Nordic-looking, Mongol-acting nomad horsemen and mammoth riders from another shadow, along with the survivors of their entire tribal confederacy, about 30,000 strong. The Vallspawn commander, Fragarak, treated them something like pet Rottweilers and had dragged them along in spite of them being mostly useless against the locals. They had learned to use local weapons… They wanted to get the hell away from the horrible devils, William and Moire included, and the locals and go back to their old way of life. Not too keen on fighting devils. The locals mostly want them dead.

When last we left our Heroes, Little Red awoke to find that William had been drug off by the Rebmans to celebrate their acquisition of a new pattern mistress. Gaius continued to plot for the liberation of Rema, and Lisette was . . . Lisetting.

While the key priority is, in fact, continuing to build the Coalition of Elders to defeat 1) Vol and 2) Oberon, the intermediate goal is to free/rescue/re-embody Dworkin, who remains trapped on his pattern. In pursuit of this goal, Little Red retired to study the Gem of Judgement.

However, since Gaius hadn’t talked to his mother in . . . like, two whole days . . . which is, yes, 10 days in dog time . . . he assembled a group of sorcerers to punch through the Trump jamming around her. Lisette joined in, as did Llewella and Florimel — and they made contact with a seriously drugged Claudia, pulling her through to Rebma.

Claudia reported — muzzily — that neither Oberon nor Corwin is in Rema right now, so Gaius enlists everyone to attack Rema in the hope of controlling it Earth-style before Oberon returns. This, unfortunately, includes Little Red — who was bright enough to point out that Oberon couldn’t take his Godhead out of the shadow, so it’s still in play. Oberon trusts Octavia to be a good little girl, so he probably settled it on her, which means that she could, potentially, show up at any time during the ceremony. Little Red also pointed out that Octavia’s survival is at best a “B” priority for him, so it was decided that she should be Trump-napped before the initial assault.

Oberon should have taught Octavia to screen her calls. Turns out she was wearing the mantle of power, but it was emptied by the transition to Rebma. Various techniques have been applied to Octavia to make her more compliant to Oberon.

Enlisting Gerard and Deirdre, our heroes prepare to attack Rema. At the last minute before leaving, Little Red realized that he might, in fact, need to kill more than four people in Rema, so he trumps Yari to ask about his pistol.

Yari’s running for his life! Guess where Corwin went? Guess where we had stashed Benedict and Katsume following the assault on Phaedris’ pattern? Yep.

So, new plan! Gerard and Deirdre trump to the Otherworld via Big Red, then pull the rest of us through. In an attempt to confuse the were-xiliary troops supporting Corwin, Claudia was given a seeming of Octavia — who ordered the were-troops* to stand down. Gerard and Deirdre open the ball by shooting Corwin’s horse, which Little Red then disintegrates. Bereft of cover and unsupported, Corwin is beaten into submission by Gerard and Gaius.

Katsume and Benedict are evacuated to Rebma. Katsume lost an arm in the fighting, but the Rebmans assure us she’ll recover.

The makers were also injured. They’re unhappy with the direct attack on them.

Rema falls anticlimactically. After long and difficult math, it is decided that Claudia (now wearing a permanent seeming of Octavia) will be owner of the shadow.

Oberon has imported machine weapons from an Earthlike shadow, with various types of shadow-munitions for the upcoming battle. He’s also imported a mercenary unit to act as cadre. Octavia has a number of blood-creatures (similar to those the Rebmans use; they’ve been doing the reconstruction of her youth) inside of her. Final verdict is to keep her interdicted from Oberon until the blood is finished working, then remove the control nodes and begin deprogramming her.

With that crisis resolved, Little Red returns to the important work of examining the Jewel of Judgement. The jewel is amazing. Want to know more? Examine it your own darn self.

Lisette called Phaedris to report on the scenario. No answer. In a nine-nines similarity to “hey, I do have a trump of a dead guy you can play with” sort of way.

Julian and Lisette immediately headed through shadow to check on Phaedris. Unfortunately, she was, in fact, quite dead — Oberon had disguised himself as one of the forest cats of Arden, smashed her skull, dragged her away from the pattern, and torn her to pieces. Grom (which might, in fact, be spelled “Gram”, which is pronounced, in my book, like the cracker) was near at hand, and Lisette picked it up.

Grom immediately set out through shadow for Places Oberon Might Be. The flesh was weak, though — Lisette passes out after only a couple of dozen hours of shadow-sprinting. Julian called Flora and excused himself. Flora called Gaius and Little Red to help out. Between them, they decided to leave Grom here (for a while, with a distinctive henge and a hard-to-open box (NSFW) around it) and head for the Otherworld for more information.

While Lisette was getting Oberon’s Starry Path privileges revoked, Little Red convinced Yari to teach him the Gemming spell. Yari warned Little Red that stuffing family members into gems should really be a second-to-last resort, since it’s not the fucking “build-a-body” shop down here. Little Red promised to be responsible.

From there, Little Red dropped off into his usual coma, but he thought Gaius went back to Rema, and Lisette went and told Bel the news. There might have been some daddy-issue-expunging with Bel as well.

Calvin

The funny thing about this is that “were” in the context of “werewolf” means “man”. There’s a “troops aren’t human” joke in there, I think. And this is the perfect place to drop the “were-candlelit dinner for two” meme. We might want to call Gaius’ race the Lupines or something, since that isn’t so similar to tenses of “to be” and the etymologists among us don’t have inappropriate laughter.

GM notes:
Grom: well, ‘Gram’ is pronounced grom in Norse and sounds less cracker-y that way. And it’s better than Balmung or Nothung, other of Weyland’s swords, or other names for Gram.

Lupines: OK with me. Mike?

Lisette looked up Night to see if she could do something about Grom. Night could — she sang Grom to ‘sleep’ and tucked the Crazy Sword away in her palace. Then she helped Lisette out with some Trump making by speeding time up in one tower of her palace and then working with her to duplicate the Multiple Floras trick. (Now they know how the Makers do that ‘got your item made up before you got here trick’.) Six new Lisette (one for Night) and Night (three for Night) cards later she was done.
Next she and checked in with Bel and broke the bad news. Bel held a wake for Phraedis and Lisette took advantage of him while he was tipsy and vulnerable.

Deirdre allowed Gaius to carry Greyswandir as Oberon-bait though Oberon was busy infiltrating Arden and murdering Phraedis at the time. She told him she wouldn’t try to draw the thing without checking it over very carefully. Some enchanted weapons were crazy, and Corwin was not all there himself.
Gaius and Claudia spent some time staging the God Oberon’s return to the heavens, leaving his daughter in charge. ‘Octavia’ took a vacation. The Imperial cult was re-worked to aim the power at Claudia. Claudia and her children experimented with Pattern vs Mantle; the two of them could neutralize it very effectively and Claudia had to defend herself with her own Pattern abilities.

Gaius rode herd on the outworld mercenaries, bringing them under Reman custom and law — Oberon had been letting them get away with, literally, murder.
Closer examination of the outworld ammo (which included things very like Gustav Adolf anti-tank rockets) revealed four sets, color coded, for use in different shadows. Oberon left little in the way of notes but some maps indicated that some of Vall’s bases had been mined.
The outworld supplies had come via sailing ships and shadow paths. Claudia broke the end links.

Gaius also practiced the shadowwalking around one world trick and put the wind up some of the new allies (former enemies) Oberon had come up with by terror, blood beast implants, possessing elementals, doubles, etc.

Julian had rode off back in the direction of Arden and, several hours later, Something Big disturbed the Pattern-force. The assumption is that Julian is now Pattern Master there, or dead. Either way the old Trumps of him don’t work any more.

Corwin has a blood beast in his brain that interferes with critical thinking. Eric reluctantly asked Queen Moire for the loan of her Royal Physician.
Eric is keeping Corwin alive largely because they’re negotiating with Bleys — who attacked Amber along with Corwin — to actively cooperate against Oberon and killing a brother might cause apprehension.

In the Otherworld the wounded were being attended to at a temporary settlement a few hundred yards from the Tree. The Children of Thunder: Beck, Ulrik and their sister Oreli, who are the Makers’ warmasters, had been called in and were helping set up defenses. Egan and Beck are as strong as Gerard, or stronger, and Heldin a little less. No real attack had ever come at them from the mortal worlds and none of their surveillance or defenses point that way.

Will investigates Bel’s kaffemeister’s process in creating the amazing coffee.

Phraedis wakes up. Phraedis heals her self (with the help of Bel’s power) and heals Lisette’s cooked hand. Phraedis is a super healer.

We talked about how Oberon took out some of the gods one by one.

Phraedis says that if there is anything she can do for us she will. She was trapped as a unicorn for over 4K years.

She lends us the use of the “unicorn” short sword. (My Lady?)

Bel sends two of his kids, Grace and Drake, to accompany us.

Will is given coffee seedlings and some soil.

We trump to Phraedis’ pattern. Benedict steps threw the trump and gets hit by lightning!
(It was Gaius’ Idea to send Benedict in with us.) We send him to the Otherworld to be healed. Phraedis starts to walk her pattern. A Giant pig charges into the Clearing! Some combat erupts and we take out the pig. Then we are ambushed by woodsprites/pygmies! We scare the away and capture one.

A trump goes off 200’ away. Little Red reanimates the pig and Will creates some elementals to create a burn. Phraedis, halfway through walking her Pattern, splits a tree and a greatsword falls out. Gaius picks up the sword — Grom, the Sword of Revenge — and struggles for control. Oberon and Corwin show up wearing plate armor. Oberon eyes the Sword and pulls Corwin back into the woods, “There’s no future in it, son.” Little Red sends the pig at them. Oberon and Corwin run away (the cowards). They use a trump to escape. Phraedis finishes walking her pattern.

We create a feast of the pig and creatures of Arden come to partake. We meet Julian who is very much in awe of Phraedis. Phraedis moves the pattern far away from amber. It may be hard for Oberon to find it. Lisette takes the chain that has a high lvl enchantment on it that eats enchantments.

Phraedis tells us that she sometimes gets dreams from Inanna. Julian tells Eric what happened via Trump. We trump to Amber. Phraedis stays in Arden. We meet most of the family. Envoys are introduced (from Bel).

The forest by Amber is not Arden any more.

Gaius asks Flora how to take over a shadow and how to send people through shadow it. Flora shows Gaius. She also shows Gaius’ sister.

Kat is told about her dad. Kat wants Will to cover for her at her dads lands. Gerard would like to help Kat as well. Gerard trumps through.

Random’s wife has reflections of the moon in her eyes. Discussion about getting Vialle onto the Tir-na Nog’th Pattern.We trump Phraedis and ask about Inanna (Tir-na Nog’th) for suggestions on how to contact Inanna. She suggests sleeping in amber.

Will tells Eric that the Jewel of Judgment might corrupt him.

Our Dreams – someone is walking the pattern (Vialle), her skin glowing with runes. A Moon eyed women in a crystal room, looking up to Amber-the-planet - a view much like photos of Earth from Earth’s moon. She is tied to Vialle. Gaius’ dreams are most vivid and detailed.

Will talks to the Moire (queen of Rebma) about Vialle. There is a small cult of the moon goddess in Tir fo Thune, and a larger one in rural Amber. The moon goddess sent Vialle to the Rebmans. Moire has had dreams as well. Moire threatened Will that if something happens to Vialle as a result of his meddling, it would be bad.

Will talks to Lir. Lir says if his bones are smashed a successor could appear. He wants to make sure that Oberon is dead first. He could change the criteria of a successor if he is taken to the pattern room. He tells Will to bring Eric and Moire and Flora to him. They come and Lir asks Eric if he is an enemy of Oberon and he says yes: they are at war. Lir asks Moire to swear she will fight Oberon “to the knife” in return for being allowed to both walk Lir’s Pattern and become its mistress; she does.if she will support the war. Lir gives Moire the pattern and she agrees to help. Lir will do a ceremony to let her take over the pattern. His bones are now placed on the pattern and Moire walks it. The break the bones — Gerard is called in as the tritons can’t get that close to the Pattern — and Lir disappears. Moire, a little crazy with the power of Creation running through her (just as Our Heroes experienced), manages to give some useful orders before grabbing Will and planting one on him. Will goes off with Moire.

Present in the Flesh – Lisette, Gaius, Little Red
Present in Spirit – William
Also tagging along – Uncle Benny

Going to the baths in Bel’s Shadow after enjoying the hospitality of Ogi in the city of Kartera. Finishing up with baths, Benedict comes and informs us that the local authority is on the way, because they knew we were here – or found out. Doesn’t know how – maybe because of the Starry Path hell-ride. Officials are officially arriving. Troops hang back, archers are very competent. Wearing hats with sun-disk motif on it. Male and Female comes to us. Male tall blond – Mr. Smooth – mover and shaker in politics. Other is Grace Jonesish – seven foot two, nine foot metal staff. Both appear to be children of Bel. Girl is tall and lean, but appears very strong.

Greeted by guy in a very political and threatening fashion, and the girl pipes up as well. INVITED to meet with Big Guy. Apparently having an escort of Night and Benedict opens doors. Looks like standard insult stuff, Lisette has an idea on where she stands.

Escorted to Palace – Defensive on the outside, but on the inside – makes baroque look ‘chintzy’. Impressive throne room. 6’4" blond, well put together – muscular, looks akin to young sun-god. He and Benedict do the whole war god – master warrior presence bigger dick contest – but in a civilized fashion – (close according to William).

“Your Majesty” preferred title. Not happy about Oberon or Vall. We sympathize with his displeasure. Benedict admits to being under compulsions and geasa to not question matters as they stood. William remarks that as we are being covered by lots of archers, they are all world class (as an aside)

Asks us about Inanna, “Night says that she is alive, but hidden, and we know her pattern is clear.”

Informed him that Night has ‘doubled’ herself.

We do the share the bread and salt ritual. Takes us all to the blue study, (NOW with less archers!!! actually 100% fewer archers). Sheng Yeen is the asian looking gentlemen, warfare based, strong, stocky wrestler type. Other looks Greek, 6’2", lean, greyhound, warfare, but mainly swordsman – Komun. Bel breaks out the booze. No chocolate!!! Lisette has ideas for new imports.

First Mother’s curse – “Upon beings of our origins, the Goddess of Motherhood laid a curse on any of us who would kill our own children. It’s not always effective.”

Wants us to find Inanna. Mother Night might be able to help determine if she is close or far from her own pattern. Might want to ask (Mother Night), no, tell her that He regrets what happened, and will not be interfering with the ‘other world’ (Underworld – Source of the Tree). He is barred from coming back and Night barred him from the Starry Path. He shares a border with Vall – which is fortified, but if Vall is sending armies elsewhere, it might be more porous.

Brand knew Phraedis was the Unicorn. Discussion of Oberon and his plans. Gauis has mandated that he is going to get it back from Oberon.

Structure of the Universe – War between the Gods – Destroyed ‘Heaven’, Mortal Realms were torn up and were remade. Tree damaged, but not too bad, nothing that couldn’t be repaired. (Bel analog for Baldur)

We introduce ourselves – and an odd occurrence happened when Bel picked up the Trumps that Lisette showed – he turned his Mantle of Power ‘on’, set it to All-Seeing Sun (aura kicked up to something like 500 watts of sun lamp), and could not only actually establish a connection, he could detect the blood it was made with and get a bit of an empathic link through it, with Florimel (the subject) and barely with the maker — Dworkin, who was immobile and trapped. Connects with Florimel in the normal Trump fashion and introduces himself. Hands trump to Lisette, and the following one sided conversation ensued, “Yes – mother, yes – yes – of course, no, not bad. Yes – he’s still here. No – I won’t. MOTHER!”

His power was evident, but not being pushed through the link.

Explaining about parenting and makers and heritage. Also explaining about genealogy and Little Red’s concerns about parenting and defects and the like.

There might be a way to get Phraedris here to break the compulsions on her.

Plan A – Build Trump of Phraedris – Using Lisette as an intiator with Little Red as an extra power source and to use the Solidify Trump Contact power word, and Benedict with Gaius for catching Unicorn and pulling through Trump. Whereupon Bel should be able to remove most of the compulsions and forced shapeshifting.

Plan B – pretty much alot like plan A, with the exception that Lisette Builds a Trump of the Unicorn’s Pattern, we all Trump through, hunt down the Unicorn and then go through to Bel. If Will can get a pass from King Eric to chase the Unicorn around Arden.

Trump needs – Phraedris, Phraedris’ environs, Bel

Bel and Benedict go about a work out as it had been a very long time since Bel had anyone on his level to spar with; with quarterstaffs and swordplay Benedict could be slightly better, but in wrestling, Bel was stronger. Drew a crowd, William was rivited. Meanwhile Lisette is eating, shrinking and then working on making a Trump of Phraedris and the environs.

The martial display inspired a bunch of sparring with observers eager to try out moves they’d seen, William among them. Gaius and Gracie wrestled, which was appropriate foreplay for two very strong, “shifty” individuals; hot sex ensued.

Little Red – talking sorcery shop with Drake. Big Red the skull and gem comes up. Drake looks up references to another thumb-joint sized, red, glowy gem of power quietly notorious in godly history… gives power over the weather and lightning… Little Red has heard about the Jewel of Judgement. Apparently Jewel was from one of the ‘asshole’ god kings. When such an artifact is created, especially from the remains of such an individual, it does retain some of the personality of the individual.

Drake and Little Red are sharing memories and experiences, Drake is having a severe mancrush on Little Red, especially with all the neat things he has experienced. LR has a complicated spell for banishing fatigue while Drake prefers to use pharmaceuticals. Drake really really really wants to see the tree. LR will ask about progeny and them being able to see Otherworld.

Lisette finally gets her audience with Bel for a portrait seating. (Trump of Bel) Sensory probe apparatus is NOT in effect, especially so Lisette can get a more accurate ‘capture’ of ‘who he is’ rather than who he is with his mantle of power. So as she is working, a long line of curious looker on’s go by to see the little girl painting on the big card. So 2 hours later, she is done.

Gaius and Gracie – hour 6 – and still going strong. More perfect pairings may not exist.

Bel wants to send Drake and Little Red to Earth, Gaius and Gracie will interview Flora, and see about opinions about the other family members in a confirmation of the interviews that have been happening with Benedict and Lisette.

Lisette gets to know Bel whilst doing the portrait, finds out his interests. Riding, song, dance, hunting, companions, and expands the world. Finding shadows and doing trade between, but also takes suggestions and the like.

Lisette gets in contact with Flora and informs her of what is going on – Benedict out of funk, new people that we have met seem to be very nice, and not a tool like Oberon. Was informed of the latest that CORWIN has escaped!!! All indications are it was via Trump, none of the guards were suborned. Surmise right now is that Oberon was the architect behind his breakout. Gerard and Julian have walked the Pattern in Tir-na Nog’th. Embassy plan is changed; Grace and Drake, escorted by Gaius and Little Red, will visit Amber, meet King Eric and make preliminary deals.

Drake upon being chosen, was very curious as to what to wear and how many servants to bring. Little Red suggests whatever and one, respectively.

Trying to retrieve the Unicorn and break the geasa that keep her in that form, unable to speak and whatever else Oberon bound her with.

The Unicorn is curious and allows the contact. Grab-snatch (Gaius is primary) – heal (Bel uses his Mantle powers to stun her and drive the blood creature out of her brain — looks like brain matter till it writhes around in his hand while burning) – break curses on Unicorn (all the watchers get sunburns and tapestries catch fire). Now we have a naked frothing bloody primal maker that is being cleansed by elementals and then packed off to the ‘recovery’ room.

Night arrives in fine fashion on Frostmane a couple of hours later – sweeps in, summoning a Mantle from her temple in Kartera – examines Phraedis, gives her and Bel approving grandmotherly kisses, removes the compulsion on Bel, and says that the tree might take longer, but he is free to use the roads. Tells Bel and our protagonists that they had exceeded her fondest hopes. And sweeps out again.

Phraedis is more than likely going to sleep around the clock.

Going with Bel to the border. He went to fetch something that can take us all; unlike Mother Night, he can manage only one mount and its riders at a time. Comes back with an elephant. A really big elephant that talks and moves pretty darn quick. It’s not the brightest thing, but sufficient for our purposes. Approach the barrier and find that we can’t find Amber – or shift to it. Taking to the star path again they can bypass the barrier but from the other side. Now we can’t find Bel’s home. The starry paths move through the third plane, where Heaven used to be, and bypass the barriers.

Back to Bel’s castle – not thinking that he can manage multiple mounts and riders on the Starry path.

We also attempted to contact Dworkin, and consequently after preparation, i.e. put Lisette in non-flammable, climate controlled armor, got out into a non-flammable area. Bel powered up and followed the Dworkin blood trace again with much more force, Lisette in contact him by touch with an un-gauntleted but blessed hand. Lisette rode the contact int the Trumpiest place around, Dworkin’s Trump Pattern, contacted him and came to find that he has been beheaded and placed next to his pattern – by our favoritest grandfather and all around fun guy – Oberon. Lisette had to break off the contact when it got shaky. She ended up with second degree burns on her hand despite the blessing.

So now we are coming up with a plan to retrieve him. And it will work. Maybe – sorta, we’ll have to get on to figuring him out.

Oberon shows up in Rema, (secretive, Nana chases everyone out but a loyal retainer, spends hours closeted alone) a nosy Gaius gets scent information from a ventilation shaft, smells Nana, the servant, AND Oberon. Smells the stink of Power also, and heads off to warn Mom, who is not pleased. Advises Gaius to head for the hills, she must stay to protect the people’s interests. Also she exhorts Aula to go at once with her art instructor and their supplies. Gaius calls Flora in and gets HER advice and has her stand by to pull him out if things get TOO interesting at the “Royal Announcement”. Next day the announcement is that Oberon has Returned! has Rejuvenated NANA to youth and has her under his thumb, he is also sporting a shiny, new Mantle of Power. Oberon announces that he will be forming the legions to battle an as-yet-unnamed opponent (Vall), and Gaius steps forward and throws down a gauntlet in challenge. Flora takes action and YANKS Gaius out of the throne room, she also has a few choice words for him too.

(Gaius is retconned into the Rebma stuff with the rest of the party… Pattern walks by Flora AND Benedict, etc…)
(Full group… cast is Gaius, Lisette, Little Red, and William)

Meeting set up with Eric, King of Amber. Lisette and Flora chat about Eric, his (and their) plans and expectations. Flora trumps Eric in and introductions are made. Short histories of the new generation are given, and blood tests are arranged for those who’s fathers are unknown (or merely suspected).
Turns out William is Eric’s son, and they go have a private chat, when they return the pattern control is discussed and Eric arranges to walk the Tir-na Nog’th Pattern, to free him of the compulsions. Eric does a better job of controlling his rage than either Flora or Benedict. His pleasure at having a son might have something to do with that. Then Eric and William head to Amber to be introduced around. Will meets Random and Vialle briefly and spends hours talking with Eric and Deirdre.
Lisette and Little Red go have a chat with Martin about working for Oberon, was used like the rest of us. Did have more info on the abductions of the younger generation, and some about Vall’s forces. [Only knew of our four, Big Red and Katsume were a surprise. Vall’s forces tend to curse a widening area of an invaded world — Black Circles — and turn all the people within into mind controlled, fearless, short lived, stupid soldiers, who were used up wastefully.

The Rebman royals want to go see the dwarves they’ve been hearing about so a trip is scheduled with Gaius and Benedict going along. Benedict, very testy since his mental chains were removed, decides early that the group is moving too slow and challenges everyone to keep up, takes off Hell-riding on his super-horse, forcing the Rebmans to assume bird form, and Gaius into Wolf. Since we are coming by shadow walking the Dwarves already know we are coming and we are met by a crowd. Benedict is pissy but the Rebmans are greeted and a tour is provided, everyone troops off to see the “World Tree” again. This time it is discovered there are 7 standing stones around the tree, each being an ancient Maker who is connected to the tree somehow. We get a cosmology on ancient history and how the Universe runs. We are invited to meet the “Eldest” an ancient Maker who is also one of the standing stones but has discovered how to be in 2 places at once. Definitely interesting!

She has a Fairytale castle in Black, she is introduced as Night (goddess of the Night) Benedict is interested in security concerns (the Makers have roaming defensive forces, and Night can scry anywhere every night), Gaius in her Goddesshood (Luna!!h) and Twinning, Gaius runs out of questions and call Lisette in (with permission), she brings in Little Red and introductions are made. Little Red is religiously ecstatic, and has a billion questions, he also trumps in William who is introduced. Turns out the 7 Patterns are endpoints of the Creative flow of the universe. And Night can teach us how to Find the Patterns.

A trip to one of the patterns is suggested and Night takes us to Bel’s Pattern..(awesome Starry Hell-ride up the Tree) (Star Trick 5 pts) a Italian style Castle/ Medieval Village and Yari and Night depart, leaving the cast to snoop around and find out who Bel supports. Sneak into town, conjure clothing and blend in, Little Red conjures Translator Elementals, and we start gathering info. Benedict goes off on his own to evaluate the place militarily. First stop a bar! Begin questioning the locals, wind up being taken for slumming nobles. Go and stay with a peasant family and begin getting the lay of the land. Bel has 20 to 30 kids locally, and three or more mistresses at any given time. Doesn’t seem like the kids are pattern initiates from the descriptions of the peasants.

Further plans will have to wait, since Lisette wants a BATH, we all troop to a roman style bath-house and Gaius feels right at Home!

Florimel called a meeting with Our Heroes, minus Gaius who didn’t answer his Trump, plus Big Red. (Big Red had, evidently, learned to assume the form of a big eagle. He came through when assured by Flora that she could keep him stable while on Earth.) She was going to have to tell King Eric about Oberon and, since Amber was facing a serious threat from Vall, about being able to make Trumps. Eric had Trumps of them… who wanted to meet the King? What should she not tell him about them? Default was ‘not much of anything’.

Plus, Flora said, they should tell The Redheads, particularly Bleys, that Oberon was still among the living. Maybe stop the war. Before Eric chained her to an easel. She didn’t want to talk to Bleys. Or Fiona. Brand, however, was often less annoying and they were all close so he could tell them.

Flora tried to Trump Brand. Odd interference. Lisette helped…. faintly, “Help me!” Our Heroes sprang into action and found themselves twenty yards from the Arden Pattern (!), the Unicorn (!) who stood up and slipped away, and Brand, Auschwitz level emaciated and chained to a big megalith. The massive chain and manacles sucked all the magic out of 30’ circle: William and Lisette picked the locks but broke nearly all their lockpicks doing so. Lisette and Little Red got the feeling that the Unicorn had been keeping Brand alive somehow. Lisette Trumped Flora and briefed her. Five minutes Flora Trumped Lisette back from her private clinic and they took Brand through to a fully equipped, magically enhanced facility and crash team.

They contacted Benedict next and found that he was busy leading his army against the Hellmaids and their flunkies in a pitched battle. He’d welcome help… Sure! Please Trump Katsume then and go to her. They did that. Kat stopped her sneak-through-shadow cavalry flank attack maneuvering to pick them up. They got dropped off at the top of the ridge Kat & Co. were about to charge down.
Lisette Trumped her warbow and arrows and started sniping the enemy. LR cloaked his area and started conjuring. Will, very frustrated by his chest wound, started hexing the enemy forces coming in contact with Kat’s group.
Will was the first to note the flight of 200 or so wyverns with riders who started circling the field in preparation for something…
The aerial troops moved to simply kamikaze straight at Benedict himself. Each mount was in the half-ton range…
Between Lisette’s archery, LR’s air elementals and William’s Patterny maledictions there was a ten wyvern pile up in front of Benedict’s position, a dozen more impacting the ground and most of the rest disorganized enough to get picked off by, mostly, Benedict. (Pop! pop! pop! pop! of arrows going trans-sonic, followed seconds later by big thumps as dead or dying wyverns landed on Hellmaids or their slaves.)
Battle won handily. Our Heroes are now very popular with the Avalon army. Benedict gets his briefing. Will and LR help out with the mop-up and get some OJT Officer Training. Lisette goes home to make Trumps.

(Off camera: Benedict visited Earth and talked to Brand and Martin. Each agreed to not escape and not make trouble.)

Upon returning:

William was bummed to find out that Flora’s Regeneration Beds do damned little for Amberites. Great for mortals…
-The Reds, Big and Little, talked with Brand and found out that he is indeed their father. Their surprised and pleased father. Good healthy boys, successfully walked the Pattern and students of the Art as well. He remembered their mothers fondly though he hadn’t believed them about carrying his children - that was before Martin walked the Pattern and made it clear that things had changed. When he went back to Shadeeza to check they had disappeared. Upon learning of the Flayer and all, Brand went quiet for a while. He asked if they meant to deal with Yagamar. He’d be happy to help. Unfortunately the only thing he could do at present was give advice and maybe make a Trump ‘sketch’ — a single use Trump — of Shadeeza as a full Trump was beyond his stamina.
On other subjects: Brand had suspected Oberon was alive and was investigating. He was caught near the Arden Pattern. Didn’t know why Oberon hadn’t simply killed him. Yes, Phraedis — the Unicorn — had been keeping him alive for weeks by force of will despite the lack of food or water. (Brand was now a member of Team Phraedis.) Phraedis hadn’t said a word. Brand speculated that she was wearing that shape against her will and that some of the rituals of the Unicorn Cult were secretly designed to keep her bound. He was aware of the Otherworld and had walked the Patterns of Tir-na Nog’th and Rebma as well as Amber’s. TnN was naturally clean of geasa,

-Lisette and Martin. Martin apologized. He had’t known about the brainwashing. He said that Oberon, the King, had singled him out for a Terribly Important Mission to Save the Family and was really, really persuasive. The other Oberon minion was named Lola (this week); a good shapeshifter and, according to Oberon, disgruntled Vall-spawn. Martin had scouted some of Vall’s forces. They tended to turn huge numbers of locals into mind controlled (and stupid) cannon fodder. Lola’s description of Vall-spawns’ survival-of-the-nastiest childhood made LR’s tales of Yagamar’s academy look not quite so bad.

Lisette and Florimel got together and turned Flora’s Mastery of Earth to Co-Mastery with Lisette. The aware (maybe, for a moment) Gaian Chorus of Elementals were quite happy to havbe a native born daughter take up half the power. Animals (and elementals) tend to gather around to worship Lisette if she lets them.

Gaius Trumped to Flora’s Secure Entrypoint. He had much to tell. (Read of this retcon in Session Seven)

While prepping to contact Eric Florimel’s inability to remember/be interested in the Otherworld and such came up. Little Red said that Brand vouched for the Rebman Pattern. Lisette pushed hard for Flora to Do Something Now. Flora gave in but said it might not be easy, Queen Moire didn’t like her, or any Amberite but Llewella, very much. Except for Benedict. Lisette Trumped Katsume and she badgered Benedict into walking Rebma’s Pattern. Benedict made a call.
Our Heroes, Flora and Kat accompanied Benedict to Reb—Tir fo Thune as his Plus Six. Breathing underwater was weird. Queen Moire, they noted after a while, sported a modest Mantle of Power. TfT’s folk were pale to brown or green skinned, with straight or curly black, brown or green (or tinted) hair. Mostly topless, lots of straps with loops or bags to hold things. Guards armed with knives, short swords and rods with smooth, unfaceted blue-green gems on the business end. They knew about the geasa on Amber’s Pattern. Festivities were interrupted to take Benedict and Florimel down (down, down) to the Pattern room immediately. Benedict walked it first. He stood at the center for a long time, stony faced, thinking. Florimel was also succesful.

Moire threw a party: banquet, music, entertainment. The Tftians were very, very friendly. Our Heroes found that, despite massive and pervasive use of magic, living undersea sort of sucks if you’re not a native.

Moire assigned Royal Physician Kynwyl to do what she could for Will. K patched him with a creature/prosthetic/superbandage made from her own blood. She explained. With Amberites, Blood Creature patches and prosthetics were quickly absorbed/integrated. She said that most of her family are shifter-healers. Kynwuyl also said that the Very Friendly Rebman women were, to an extent, looking to breed more potential Pattern initiates.

Our Heroes told something of their adventures. Results:
- Moire offered to get Little Red some help with Combat Magery.
The Tir fo Thuneans had only vague stories of something like the Otherworld. Llewella had never gone there. Why go deal with some dwarves in the stick when she had Royal access to the Conjurors of her home. Plans were made to visit the Otherworld.
They met the Ghost of Lir and viewed his huge, draconic, crystallized bones. (Lir is respected in Moire’s realm, not worshipped.) Lir spoke to Lisette and Flora mentally, saying they should look into what happened to the previous set of Oberon’s children. Flora realized that this is another thing that got Geased into the Not Important file and had a talk with Benedict. Oberon’s rep for villainy continued to grow.

We are trying to figure out ways of forcing a trump contact. We decide not to walk Flora on the pattern yet. We trump to Rema. The priest volunteers to be hypnotized so we can feed false information to tell the enemy. We think it is better to practice trump assaults. We decide to practice in the other world (dwarf land). So we trump Yari and ask him if we can go to his land. He says yes. We trump through quickly to the courtyard with the pillar in the other world. Little Red has the dwarfs create him a gas powered gun and gets an armored jump suit made out of osmium with colored checkers in safety orange and florescent purple. Will gets made a dwarf suit of leather armor. We practice trump assaults on Big Red first. We teach Big Red how to use trumps and we all practice. Using sorcery and energy surge helps in busting power through one card.

We trump to Earth. Lisette wants to help Mom take over the business. We visit Deniz she is happy learning to speak her mind. We get trumps of a secure location on Earth. Aula is taking back art supplies and teachers to practice art. Lisette goes through a ritual to take over part of earth. Little Red creates a box with earth daggers around him with an air pocket for fresh air (to protect against trump assaults). Flora’s people will help cut gems for Will. We take Deniz out to dinner. Will takes drivers training in a number of different vehicles. Lisettte drives on the autobahn. Flora hugs Lisette and says she misses her and was concerned when she was captured.

We trump back to Rema. We have the priest trump the Bad Guy and ignore us to tell him about the crucified guy. We make our trump assault and push our way through! And then the mayhem issues! We find out it is Oberon! We are out matched! But we manage to escape as well as capturing Martin. Lisette trumps to Rema. Will trumps to Earth (and bleeds a lot). Gaius Stays behind after Oberon leaves to investigate the area. Little Red trumps Eric during the battle and gets “invited through”. Little Red tells Eric most everything (except the trumps). Eric took all of Little Reds extra trumps except the one to Earth. Lisette takes Martin to Earth and talks with Flora and Will. Gaius trumps to Rema with some of Oberon’s blood. He talks with his mom privately. She thinks Oberon is using them as a tool. She does not like to be a tool and they might fight Oberon. Little Red trumps to Earth and tells Flora that Eric took some of his trumps.
Oberon is going to fight 2 Brothers. One is Vall and he does not want him to know that he was still alive (Gaius’ info).

He starts in England, trumps Little Red… Little Red answers – inquires about botany experiments. Explained it’s being horticultured. Informs him about the fact that parents can’t remember Outworld. No idea what anyone else is doing, but that everyone is hanging with the were’s. William has been doing work on narrowing down who the enemy is. He has apparently eradicated an agent – who was spying on his movements in his home shadow.

It’s a balmy summer evening in England – after an ice age, in other words, not that warm. William is mounted on a horse. Wants to call in others, contacts Lisette. Lisette is busy making trumps of different people. Claudia approached and was negotiating for making Aula a Trump Artist. Lisette explained the difficulties and the time involved. Quick trip to Earth – after a change of clothes went to Florence. Introduced to modern manufacturing technology – getting tutored by art instructors.

Little Red and William were talking shop – some of it more horrifying that others. LR thinks William is a trifle squeamish. William doesn’t ‘DO’ torture. Getting back into contact with the others. Trumps Gauis, and brings through. English woods. Horses not liking Gauis.

Lisette comes through – looks about – informed that going to Italy. Twists shadow to Italy. Finding horses is not difficult. Lisette tries out the Rema trump and sends Gauis back to get his damn horse.

Low profile is the name of the operation. We are warned that if we are going to be overt, then we can stay in London and stay away from his mother. We asked who his mother was, and got a ‘None of your business!’ LR and Lisette came back with, “Well how do we know who to avoid?”

Since we are going to Veniccia – horses not good. Going to shift to a gondola.

TAKING a gondola through shadow. Come upon a burning, Turk-populated version of Veniccia, a naked young woman swam up to the gondola – as fully clothed, drowning folk called her a whore – and we took her in. Smattering of dialects that she speaks, after being conjured clean (which freaked her out) and got a conjured blanket (also freaked her out). Comfort the girl who is known as Deniz. Apparently gunpowder is only half as effective here, we found out when Gauis put a grenade into a would-be gondola hijacker’s chest. His brother took umbrage, so Lisette threw a knife into his throat.

Lisette pulls an outfit out of a closet trump, and while William shifts to our final destination, adapts all our clothing to the current shadow. Lisette is looking exotic and foreign. LR is attempting to fit in. William dressed in good quality, but not flashy garments. Gauis is just being big – and threatening – wearing the better part of a couple of wolves. Deniz is dressed in common clothes. Need shoes for all – keep us about an inch above the crap. We are making our way to Williams’ town house.

Apparently people are looking for William, and he recognizes that some guy is waiting in the cafe’, signalled and other stuff is happening. Place has been hung with spells. Guy takes off down the street, Gaius has been sent to fetch.

Gaius is galumphing after….. will corral the guy – maybe.

Lisette is going after the guy at the counter cafe’.

LR and William are going after the guy sitting at the table who is apparently coordinating activity.

William does have backup in the form of ‘Sticks’, one of his ‘enforcer/buttonman/soldier’ types. Main guy was attempting to break a spellstick, William negates it by throwing a dagger into the guys hand.

Lisette runs into the cafe’ and prevents the guy tending bar from leaving. He looks into her eyes and basically gives up. Lisette covers his hands and initiates contact. She berates information out of him. Apparently there is another guy that spells the sitting one, he will point him out – aside from the fact that the bastards never paid, they always come in disguise.

Gauis takes out the running one, fairly easily.

LR stops the ring from sending its message. William recognizes the guy, another ‘professional’ but not as good.

Runners were sent to different addresses. Message number ‘3’. Message ‘1’ is ‘We got him’, Message ‘2’ is ‘Flee’, unknown what Message ‘3’ is. Urchin is not quite away. Urchin was able to be coerced into coming back and gave the Message to Lisette, ir read, ’He’s back, come right away’.

LR disables the wards that were ‘add-ons’ – or attempts to. Waiting to hear what the guy was doing, and where he was going. He was going for the ‘spooker’ – assuming that meant the mage on contract?

We get things prepared. The runner was armed up – we removed them.

We were waiting, and then a cannon popped in and fired, it was ‘snuffed’, but it was of limited effect. A second cannon popped in with a muffled, armored fellow, but William managed to keep him from firing the cannon by capping him in his armored head. Someone was watching. Professional – attempts to leave the area nonchalantly. William shoots him in the leg with his AK-47. Gaius is furry, so can’t go get him without causing a panic.

Sticks gets him, wraps up leg – LR has the dead guy get the other dead guy. The wounded guy is spilling his guts. Pretty much a schmuck for hire. Promises from a Demon Lord. He would get Milan. Rule of the Day – Never trust Demon Lords, or those who claim to be.

Found ‘shot in the face mage’s house – found a magic box. ‘SITFM’ was a teleportation specialist, and more than likely the source of the teleportation sticks. Been to all the houses. Box was of the magical variety. Found some woodblock porn – but that’s about it.

William is converting the ‘Shot in the shin guy’, also known as Benito the Stump, to his ‘business’. According to William – this is all business. Except for the cannon guy – that was personal.

Benito is also the other guy who watched at the cafe’. Guido, was the guy that Gaius chased down. Guido might not make the second cut. Lisette takes him aside and tries to assess his capabilities. He’s not that good for much of anything, discussing the clergy, but ultimately we decided that he would be a great bosun, or bosun’s mate – he likes holding peoples’ heads under water and beating them with sticks.

We send him to the navy with an intense hatred of the Turks and the French.

Deniz and Lisette go shopping with SITFM’s money.

LR and William work on the box, get it open, and find a single trump. Not going to use it. Male, broad big, looks fairly powerful. Style is not readily identifiable, it is Dworkinesque in its intensity and looks to have the same level of detail that he puts into his trumps.

An option that might not ever be utilized is Lisette goes toe to toe with him to brute force him with the rest of the crew to back her up. But we’ll explore other options first.

Gaius is following a scent from his attacker – identifiably female scent this time, he’d only caught a second of her in between Questing Beast and Dragon shapes before, but now he is certain she was in the area. William’s gambling den was her focus for awhile at least two days ago.

Deniz and Lisette are buying clothes.

The mystery woman who seemed to be Francqish, seemed to be lower nobility. Investigated William’s gambling house – cased the joint. Found all the passages, she gave off no aura, or anything else for that matter. Lisette has a good mental image, but since the woman is a known shapeshifter, it is malleable.

William talked to employees, and got them taken care of. Still nervous as far as things go, since William showed up with more muscle that they’ve ever seen before. He also picked up a pretty strong magic user along the way. And then of course Gaius all seven feet of him. Still – the natives were restless, William needed to do or say something. He is meeting with the Black Hand master of the city.

LR spends a lot of Williams money on a high class courtesan. LR is playing genteel games, and getting it on with the Courtesan.

Deniz is wanting to be owned, and pretty much is regulated to William as the default prospect. The other group is going out for dinner, coffee and gelato. Dressed up in fashionable clothes, silk and lace.

Apparently we (the group) are celebrity, so people are gawking at us as we dine. Good food and good wines, dining well. Even Gaius has enough. No assassination attempts, much to our disappointment. William and Deniz are discussing her fate in this place. Lisette pipes up and gets Deniz to Earth to indoctrinate into Flora’s Academy. There she will train up and get to the point where she will decide what to do with herself over and above the far-fetched and fanciful dreams of her society.

Lisette goes in Deniz guise to the meeting with the other dude in the Black Hand. Neutral restaurant, good food and the questions start.

Want to know where he was, why people are firing cannon in the middle of town, and what is up with the new associates. Mostly the identities of who is attacking him.

William tells him what the guy needed to know – Satan impersonator coercing employees. Not that immortal god like beings would burn his organization down just to get to us.

Now going to Rema to see if there are unattached trumps in Rema. Lisette cannot track, because she doesn’t ‘own’ Rema, or even have an interest in it. LR is going to hang a spell to get a feeling of where the other trumps are that are not ‘known’. While doing that, Lisette will be making Trumps. She just needs to get away from LR so as not to disturb him while he’s crafting the spell.

Lisette makes three more imperial sets, Gaius’ Mother, Grandmother and Sister. Coordinate some with the Imperial’s to get the Empress back and forth, but since she’s making Trumps for them and Gaius, they do what it takes to make it happen. William is reloading ammunition, and doing practicing of doing it better, sparring with werewolves. LR devised a spell for locating Trumps over a wide area and arranged to get power from some guys from the Imperial Thaumaturgy College. Gaius is prowling among the College wizards and manages to wind some folks who are being nervous and not really in a good way.

Found two spare trumps, One in the First Temple of the Imperial Cult, the other is in the Upscale part of town. Gaius is backing the suspicious guys into a corner. Arrests the two guys, who pretty much agree to go quietly. Otherwise – lots of guys are after brownie points. One is an Underpriest of the Imperial Court, the other has quarters in the the Upscale neighborhood. They will be held in Anti-magic areas, and then go search houses.

Lisette felt the ‘trump’ wave that went off, and then got back with the rest of the group with the other trumps. Parse out the other decks. Going off to search the residences of the ‘traitors’.

Apparently he has no imagination – same damn box with same damn traps on it. Physical traps are the same, magical are more set up by the owners of the box. Two more trumps of the same guy were in the box. God Oberon is in the Trump (what the Priest thinks). Duped into spying and reporting back to the God of the movements of the Royal Family. He is firmly convinced that he is looking after the Family’s best interest. Actually believes it himself. Actually kicking himself when Gaius was abducted.

The other guy, was aware of the Priest, but he was in it pretty much for the money. Very mercenary in his pursuits – well-adjusted sociopath. Lisette goes into his head to get this information. Octavia is going to have her top guy going back in after Lisette is done. He’s a really nasty piece of work. Claudia has him crucified, with College to keep the immediate area magic and elemental free until he finally expires. Lisette gets all the information on where his stuff is. Turned over to the Imperial college and confirmed by the other guy that goes into his brain. The Priest is mortified by this, and turns over his apparatus to the Imperials.

Trumps are deemed God-Blood use only, all others that are not specifically cleared are to confiscated. Called an Imperial Resource.

Claudia is currently the record holder for ‘youngest child of Oberon’ technically she is only 20 years old, Amber time.

Going to attempt to get Flora to walk the pattern to see if she will then remember ‘Overworld’. Tir-na Nog’th or TNN, guarded a little better since the incident. Lisette is going to have to ‘convince’ her a little more to get her to walk the pattern.

She does, however not know who is on the Trump. Cannot ID him, but does rule out a number of possibilities….

Stay Tuned for more developments – Same Amber Time – Same Amber Channel….

William readied himself for a journey back home to Will’s World. He selected a high end boutique jewelry store and exercised a mix of mundane skill, Conjuration (to take down power on the target’s block) and probability control to loot the place thoroughly. He now had many samples of advanced gem cutting technique to use as wealth, bribes and gifts for his mother and others. Added to his collection of guns and ammo and his potted Otherworldly plants it was clear that at least two horses would be necessary. Florimel’s minions, as per orders, gave him three sturdy, nondescript horses. They were untrained in shadow walking — Katsume and Lisette had explained how to psychically soothe horses’ discomfort about sudden changes in scents and sounds — as the limited supply of trained horses, mules and one camel were Florimel’s or Lisette’s personal mounts.

Lisette Trumped Will and his beasts to a location well away from Earth and he set out for home. Between specifying no trouble and acclimating the trip stretched out to three days. Will arrived via the hunting park on his mother’s country estate and was nervously but professionally welcomed and made comfortable by the servants. (Will was rather frightening unusually polite and tipped really well.) Will’s mother, Lady Anne Devray was not in residence as the social season was still winding up in Londin.

Will took most of a day to let seamstresses work on some court clothes, to test his ammunition (black powder performance near identical to on Earth, cartriges maybe 10% more energetic), and to have some of the plants transplanted into the garden with strict instructions and a sizable tip for the chief gardener. He rode out late in the day and arrived at Lady Devray’s Londin town house at mid evening. Mother was out socializing. Will got cleaned up and set off for the first of 3 or 4 likely parties. Anne was attending the second, one informal enough that the Will’s dress and deportment got him in despite the lack of an invitation.

William’s mother greeted him warmly (by chilly Anglish standards), introduced him around and eventually found a spot to talk privately. Anne was fine, pleased with herself for deflecting the Prince Regent’s recent boorish but dangerous attentions off to someone more suited to his usual tastes, a very pretty, very young and quite stupid girl with ambitious parents. (Anne herself looked like a Hollywood-beautiful mid-thirties.) William owned himself more than fit and come bearing presents and opportunities. The remainder of the evening was fairly dull for William; a bit of his reputation as a duelist was circulating and even the stupidest of the noble bullies present managed to control themselves.

Will and Anne rode out to the estate the following day. Will inquired about his father and showed her the Trumps of Florimel’s brothers. Anne identified “Richard” as either Eric or Corwin — it had been decades and the two looked much alike. The Trumps intrigued her, something tickling her magician’s senses. Will gave her an edited account of his recent adventures and revelations. Anne was skeptical; she checked him out for mind bending enchantments: nothing. He had her Trump him from across the room. Then he took her on an excursion, riding off into the woods and eventually to a cliff overlooking a valley with a Mongol-like encampment and unfamiliar vegetation. Anne sat on a fallen tree and worked implications out for a bit. One: smuggling opportunities! Two: gadding about to other worlds would be extraordinarily dangerous for a good-looking woman without a very substantial bodyguard. Time to get back.

Returning, they saw from the wood that the mansion now had visitors, twenty of the Regent’s Guard, half of them inside terrorizing the staff by the sounds. Will and his mum were spotted and seven of the guardsmen mounted up and rode for the woods. William took a few minutes to incapacitate them without being seen. He went back to observe the mansion and saw the troop’s leader, Lord de Gheere, leading them towards the woods. William and Anne mounted up and led their pursuers on a chase through the woods and out of the shadow to a large clearing that was obviously unearthly. De Gheere, the Prince Regent’s top henchman, ordered a stop, thought for a while, told his men to stay put and rode slowly over to Will and Anne waving a white handkerchief. Faced with the threat of being left in an alien world, de Gheere folded. The Prince Regent had accused Lady Devray and her son with high treason and ordered their arrest. De Gheere obeyed though he’d been concerned that the PR was acting strangely. Faced with sorcery of this magnitude he sold out his patron and gave Will a lot of good information on how to get into the PR’s palace unseen. Will took de Gheere with them back to his home world and marooned the guardsmen. De Gheere set off for his own estate with the guardsmen in the wood (who hadn’t seen their attackers) with an eye, he said, to leaving for the Continent.

Lady Anne calmed her servants. William gathered some tools and rode to Londin. The Prince Regent died quietly of natural causes in the night. He’d been influenced by an amulet. Will traced the influence to the PR’s confessor and questioned him. The confessor, a magus of moderate power, was in league with the Demon Prince and President Focalor who had set him three years ago the task of watching for William should he visit Lady Devray. He’d been informed that William had evaded capture by the incompetent Italians. When William showed up in Londin the confessor seized his opportunity to please the Dark Master and arranged for William to be captured. He’d catastrophically underestimated William’s capabilities. He had a sigil to contact his superior in Focalor’s service. That exhausted the confessor’s useful knowledge. He died more painfully than the PR. William ghosted away.

With the Prince Regent dead the throne fell to Princess Catherine, an intelligent and willful woman who had come of age two years ago. The PR kept finding excuses to delay crowning her. Next in line were two male, more malleable cousins. Princess Catherine had some loyal supporters but the smart money was on the first cousin to be king after she had an unfortunate accident. At Anne’s urging, William interfered. He popped out of nowhere to thwart a hastily arranged assassination attempt on Catherine the next day by killing most of the assassins himself. Catherine knew a good thing when she saw it an offered him the post of bodyguard and security consultant. A few more deaths — some blatant, some inexplicable — and the cousins’ less committed supporters deserted in droves. Nobody was saying openly that the Princess’ bodyguard was the Black Hand’s — and Europe’s — top killer but they did whisper it a lot. Most could add Mistaken Arrest Warrant Against William and Anne + Dead Prince Regent + William Backing the Princess = Get the Fuck Out of the Way. Catherine was the legitimate heir, so that was something even though she was a woman. William selected the best of Catherine’s supporters to run her security and found a couple of pros that could be bribed and terrified into signing on.

William left, shadowshifting (vanished!) for Italia. Lady Devray was extremely pleased with being one of Queen Catherine advisors. Catherine was pleased overall that the frightening William was gone but the threat of him remained. Everybody else could suck it.

Session starts with William being called away to do something back home. The
cast is preparing to rest after a large party earlier in the evening celebrating
the “ascension” or pattern walk of Gaius’s mother Claudia and his sister Aula
Meridia. These two spend the night in pattern charged debauchery, as the rest of
the hero’s did on earth after their patternwalk.

The next day finds Lisette and her Trump skills being sought after by Katsume,
she agrees and shrinks herself down to work on one with Kitsune posing AND being
bodyguard of the tiny Lisette. Gaius is volunteered to lead Claudia and Aula on
their first training on shadow walking, which he introduces them to at least the
basics, though he finds managing the timeline himself to keep them on time quite
tiring. Little Red spends time researching through meditation searching for
links to overworld portals and the Tree.

Later in the afternoon Gaius has to call in Katsume to help him with more
advanced lessons for Mom and Sis, she arrives after a delay to make sure Lisette
is well guarded. Mom springs a surprise, She and Nana (empress Prima Octavia)
want to set up a Troop Maneuver exercise to practice moving troops through
shadow, which Gaius has NOT had experience with, this to last a couple of days
probably. Gaius and Katsume are volunteered with Lisette and Little Red
arriving and helping later.

After this the Royals of Rema are happy, Katsume departs for Avalon with the
Royals gratitude, Lisette heads to Shadow Earth to work on some Trump Closets
(also with gratitude), Little Red is thanked and heads to Avalon and Benedict to
continue his research. Gaius spends time with the Imperial Thaumaturgical
College and finding out what info they have on the spirit dragon.

Little Red links up with Benedict and agrees to some magical scouting later then
borrows a couple soldiers as guards and heads out into the woods to meditate on
the the Overworld. (Benedict was curious how the Imperials are doing (Gaius’s
family), to which LR makes a comment about Monkeys and Footballs). LR discovers
energy traces and tracks one to his Trump set, but is interrupted in his
research and experimenting by an attack, two hellmaids and two hellsteeds were
drawn to the area by his power usage. The hellmaids are defeated after killing
one of his guards and wounding the other, LR is wounded a bit, but manages to
distract the final hellmaid while the guard runs her through, he was trying to
take a prisoner but the guard advises against it, Benedict has not had much
success with any Hellmaid prisoners so far. So scratch the prisoner idea and LR
takes their heads for a speak with dead attempt later.
They drag back in to camp, which is already in an uproar, with Benedict having
felt the arrival of the Hellmaids. More patrols and sweeps head out and Benedict
himself goes out and kills more hellmaids that had arrived elsewhere.

Gaius heads to the shadow where he was captured and speaks with the Shadow
Dragon, which is stuck to a rock in the area he found his mother and the rest of
the searchers. The dragon is as helpful as possible, since he really has no
choice. and Gaius finds out that there were two, one who “volunteered” the
dragon and another who actually was the recipient of the dragons “mantle”
powers. Gaius asks if the dragon is interested in revenge, with the thought that
the dragon might be able to mantle him. the dragon declines pointing out the
fact that a battle between Gaius and the other primary wouldn’t leave much of
anything in between.

Lisette finishes her Trump Closets, and heads off to the underworld by trump.
she is looking for armor to go with her very nice sword.
dickers with the dwarves and discusses some of what the elders were doing here
historically.

Little Red calls elementals to do his bidding and creates an elemental ice chest
for the heads. also an air elemental or two to defend him against Arrows (the
Hellmaids nearly got him with some) Works on a way to do “instant on armor”,
once satisfied he walks a couple shadows away and questions the dead hellmaids
using their heads as leverage to call their spirits. gets much more info than
Benedict was able to, then has a fire elemental destroy the heads. He then heads
back to Benedict and reports all the info he got. B is thankful, and they
discuss the spying that the Hellmaids were doing using Crows.. this irritates
Benedict and he goes out and searches his camp and kills every crow he finds in
the area (using pattern). about this time Katsume arrives and finds out what is
going on and She does some crow killing too, though she cant find many. Back
together she is stunned when Benedict will not listen to her about the dwarves
and the underworld, says it is unimportant. She and Little Red discuss the
possibility of mental blockage from some source, possibly the pattern in Amber
since the one they all walked was in Tir and didn’t seem to block any of the
group.

Gaius arrives back in Rema to be shortly trumped by Lisette and then Little Red
who want to be trumped back in. He obliges and they spend a bit of time filling
each other in. The main points are Benedicts ignoring as unimportant the
wellsprings, and the Hellmaid’s GOD, which sounds like it might be another of
the 7 creators of THIS edition of creation, Dworkin and Oberon being two more,
along with the fact that Trump Decks have a tracer signal of some kind.

Lisette requests a location in Rema as a trump target, with the Royals
requesting arms and explosives for “self-defense”. Lisette advises a careful
advance of the technology in this world since it can unbalance the whole system,
finding a shadows that can provide smaller “jumps” in the technology level and
not trying to Jump straight to Shadow Earth level technology. Some items are
suggested for an elite team of royal guards, AK47 special bullets, grenades, 44
Magnum pistols for the royal family, flak vests, etc…
Aula is checked for trump artistry capability with decent results, she could
learn though she might not be an outstanding trump artist.
Lisette calls Flora (her mother) and with the assistance of the group she wants
to take her to the underworld to see the dwarves, and they also discuss
Lisette’s Trump skill of shrinking herself to make better trumps. Flora goes
along and Gaius goes too. Flora is impressed with the Tree, says something about
it sounds like a bunch of patterns going over a waterfall, and singing about
it….
the Dwarves welcome Flora and she requests permission to use some elementals to
lift her up, then clear a view of the tree from here, 100’s of miles away. she
gets that permission and after is quite impressed with the wellsprings. A
discussion follows, where the underworld and the Tree are topics of interest,
along with the findings on Benedict. Flora is no dummy and figures that SHE is
the experiment to find out what is going on. Lisette sets up Flora with the
dwarves for equipment and slyly tries to set her up for a dickering session like
the did to her. (the dwarves were messing with us at first, then they told us
the first item for a family member is free) So Flora requests that if She
forgets like Benedict, Lisette is to insist she walk the Tir pattern, also says
most enchantments can be burned off with a trump. Flora figures that the 7
creators each had a pattern, which puts 3 (4) in close proximity to Amber, maybe
more? and that Oberon might have been captured or killed since the Dwarves know
that there was a disagreement between the 7 , with Oberon coming out on top.

Flora heads back to the upperworlds and does “forget” about the importance of
the underworld and the wellsprings of creation.

Our Heroes: GAIUS, LISETTE, LITTLERED and WILLIAM, and their companions Big Red and Katsume are in the Otherworld but do not know it.

Vigg (dwarf) lost at Poker to Lisette and agreed to make her a saber on the following day. The game had attracted a small crowd of dwarves; post-game this developed into a party. Platters of food came out of caves that had not smelled of food before. Kegs of beer were hauled out.

It turned out that Amberites didn’t socialize with them normally. This made the party exotic and interesting. The `dwarves’ started shapeshifting to attractive human or near-human forms. Each could casually assume a number of human forms; they referred to the dwarf shapes as `forge-forms’.

Over the course of several alcohol-lubricated conversations with Vigg, Lofar and expecially the elder named Yari they learned——-

They weren’t in Kansas anymore. They were in the Otherworld, other-plane really. The worlds they were familiar with were `Upstairs’.

At the center of the Otherworld were the Wellsprings of Creation and the `Tree’ — a geyser or conduit of creative energy streaking up in a great column to nurture Upstairs/Shadow — which Our Heroes could feel from hundreds of miles away. (If the Patterns of Tir-na Nog’th and Amber felt like numinous arias then the wellsprings and Tree felt like a vast, awe-inspiring choir.)

Also in the Otherworld were the lands of the afterlife, the heavens and hells and so on of the mortals who lived and died Upstairs. Most of whom would eventually be reincarnated Upstairs via the Tree. Plus some other lands, some of them hostile to the Center.

The Otherworld and Upper Worlds had been reconfigured a number of times. They were quite familiar with the last one, about 2-3 millennia past. They suspected the accounts of older ones were loaded with lies.

The current cosmography was thrown together in a hurry as the old order fell apart under the stress of a huge godwar* which some great Makers had been largely responsible for. Seven surviving Powers and seven Eldest Makers cut a deal and shaped a new cosmos out of the ruin. The seven Powers were Oberon, Dworkin, Phraedis, Inanna, Lir, Vall and Bael. The seven later warred on each other; Oberon won.

The `dwarves’ called themselves `makers’. They designed and made new kinds of animals and plants and fed them into the Tree to appear as needed in Shadow. Some of them also made weapons, armor and such for visiting Pattern initiates. From the Makers’ point of view the purpose of Patterners was to make/find/precipitate new worlds , strengthen old ones and protect Creation in general. Helping Pattern initiates survive was part of the Makers’ jobs as smiths/engineers/gardeners/fertility genii of Creation. They’d mostly given up direct participation in the Upper Worlds’ affairs due to some oMoreover, Patterners shadowshifting towards Wanted (especially Needed) Equipment + Dwarves would easily arrive at the Forges. Travel to and from the Otherworld was difficult otherwise. A Patterner’s first item was free (the giant killing, while useful, and the poker game, while fun, were just the Makers fucking with them.

[Experiment showed that the blooded Flora Trumps and the Dworkin Trumps worked between Shadow and the Otherworld. The others — the ones Flora made for the wary-of bleeding-for-the-witch party - did not.]

Gods* in the Makers’ parlance were people who possessed powerful Mantles of Power [think thematic magic power armor] from the ritual offerings of mortal worship. That was what mortals were made for, originally. And, of course, to be flunkies, fuck toys and cheap labor. In the Old Days gods could accumulate massively powerful Mantles usable across the entire Upper World — which was, in those times singular and vast. One of the main selling points of the New Order for the Makers involved was dividing the Upper World into many smaller worlds, the Veils between them impermeable to Mantles. The destructive power of magic was thereby limited and localized.

The old gods, the Makers and various others were different clans of Immortals. Interbreeding was rampant. Some of PCs were probably relatives of some Makers.

[Discussion about Yagamar ensued. The Makers thought that Yagamar had made a powerful Mantle from his many victims, making him very powerful in that world. The Makers could forge weapons capable of bypassing any Mantle. As Yagamar was killing a world they were pleased to help. What they couldn’t make was a Mantlekiller energy cannon. Muscle powered weapons yes. Back in one of the previous Ages the then-King of the World had laid down a fate that `eyes would never see the blade that could slay him’ and none but his loyal guard were allowed to come near him armed. An assassin gutted him with an invisible, mantle-piercing, blade who’s wounds would not heal. Yari was getting into the spirit of making a super-weapon, eyes gleaming… But they didn’t let things like that loose any more if they could help it. Lofar’s great uncle’s Sword of Revenge had played a big roll in the fall of the Old Order.]

Neither Florimel or Benedict had ever told Lisette or Katsume any of this cosmography or history. The past just petered out into Oberon having been around forever.

The Makers, being fertility genii of sorts and fairly isolated, had a strong interest in personable Fresh Meat. Hook-ups happened. Andvari’s blue liquor helped. Vigg spent part of the night with Lisette despite losing the card game.

In the morning Vigg started in on Lisette’s saber early in the morning. Somewhat later Big Red was found to have transmogrified back into a gem and a skull. That and the notion of creating a new body for BR got the Makers very interested. The group worked out a design over a couple of days. Meanwhile, Lisette got one of the Makers to teach her how to shrink herself. Once the design on Big Red Mk 3 was done the group went with a bunch of Makers to the Tree to execute it. They called and negotiated with storm-steeds — intelligent, massive horses with some magics and minor Mantles that let them run on air and call winds — for transport. Flying was new to all but the Earthborn, and flying on horseback new to them.

The Tree was about five miles in diameter. Up close it was like looking into the Face of God and listening to Her Sing Her Heart Out. The makers set up a good hundred yards away. Lil Red asked what would happen if someone touched the Tree. Lots of things, most of them bad, might happen. If he must, please do it way around the curve of the `trunk’ please… He didn’t.

The bodycrafting went smoothly with three makers working together and a double dozen more doing Conjury support. Big Red had a body like his old one, minus scars. He was also stuck in the Otherworld for at least a month, maybe a year as shadowshifting could destabilize his new bod.

Gaius and the Reds decided to hold off on their first (free) orders.

Lisette received her saber; it was magnificent.

As they prepared to leave Katsume talked Big Red into trading his Trumps (which wouldn’t reach the Upper Worlds) for a Really Big Favor or Favors to be named later.

The Reds parted wrenchingly. Lisette Trumped them to Earth.

Gaius gathered things to try out at home: black powder, some handguns, a block of C4, diagrams, blueprints…

Lisette Trumped them to a shadow well away from Earth and Gaius led them toards the world from which he’d been abducted. He found something that looked like the Questing Beast he’d followed, killed it and took it with him the last little way there…

And was surprised. There were Legionaries in the woods who were very happy to see him. The legion he’d had hunting the Q Beast was encamped where he’d confronted the dragon. Around an Imperial camp and an Imperial Thaumaturgical College camp. Claudia was here. The Imperial Heir and her son embraced in Stoic Reman style. He introduced his allies. The dragon, or a half-spirit version of it was confined inside a magic circle among the wizards.

After Primus Magisterus of the ITC not-to-subtly checked Gaius out for enchantments his mother allowed Gaius to talk her into meeting his allies in her tent without any witnesses. The imperial wizard did a cone of silence spell. Lil Red did one too, just to be sure.

Gaius explained. That took a while. She took his word for it that they smelled like family. (Her nose was not as good as his.) She had them demonstrate a Trump’s uses. They went outside to try out the guns and explosives. Black powder = twice as big a boom. Handgun = exploded. (Katsume had a special glove, wasn’t hurt.) C4 (a small bit), set off with simultaneous lightning from LRed and bullets from Will and Kat, about three times as energetic as on Earth. All with the wizards monitoring for magic.

The Princess gave orders to break camp, they were returning home. She had a private talk with Gaius. Did he really think these people would be real allies and assets? If not they should he killed now. Gaius said yes, they should be very useful. Right then, allies so long as the Empress agrees.

As to why they’d come after Gaius, he’d vanished from the legion he’d had chasing a single beast. When he didn’t come back within a week she put her foot down (with the Empress’ permission) as Godborn, damaging the Imperial Marshal who disagreed to vigorously. She’d brought in as many wizards as were necessary to force the portal (shadowpath) open and keep it open, then the next two, found the dragon-spirit, captured and subdued it. It had been both bribed and intimidated into helping Gaius’ captor, adding its power to his to take Gaius down. Then the captor split from the dragon, produced a small device (Trump) and vanished with Gaius. While Claudia was Unhappy with Gaius’ choices they weren’t entirely his fault; the wizards had found traces of mindbending enchantments and all the weres had smelled and been affected by the scent of the Questing Beast. Still, the empire expected more from the Godborn.

Back in Rema the foreigners were shown to luxurious rooms with hot and cold running slaves. Gaius was ordered to a private meeting with the Empress. Grandmother crooked her finger at him. When he was close enough she clouted him up the side of his head with the Imperial Scepter — solid bronze in the hand of an old but vigorous werewolf. Then she had him stand still and sewed up the head would herself, something she hadn’t done since he was a child, all without a word, but her touch was gentle, her suturing adept. She agreed with the idea of alliance.

They all attended an imperial banquet reclining on couches, eating a wide variety of good or fantastical food (though none of that vomitorium crap, werewolves aren’t that stupid) and entertainment in the form of acrobats, dancers and music of the small harp and pipes variety.

Then business: The Imperials wanted to get Gaius’ mother and sister Initiated as soon as possible. Both were potential targets of whomever had captured them. They were also very interested in Earthly weapons and technology. And Trumps.

Lisette said they could buy all the guns and explosives and so on as they wished from Earth. It shouldn’t be hard to manufacture bullets with less powder, for instance. They could hire experts (adventurous and greedy hobbyists) from Earth to teach what they could. Transport might be a problem. As to Trumps, they could work something out keeping in mind that time flowed half as fast on Earth and one fifth as fast in Amber and either Lisette or Florimel had to make them themselves. And both had a lot of work to do already. Lisette Trumped Flora and was told she was busy but would have an opportunity to call back in an hour or two — 5-10 hours.

Katsume said that her father would be happy to meet more family members. More, the Reman legionaries were very like one of his favorite types of soldiers: professional, cosClaudiailetan, tough, skilled. She Trumped him and once contact was made, slowed down about 2.5×. After a few minutes she went through to him. Then he Trumped Lisette and came through to her. He bowed gravely to the Empress, then the Prima Principessa — “Sister” — and Secunda Principessa Aula — “Niece” and to Gaius — “Nephew”. Then he did his Command Presence thing and sucked all the air out of the room for a Claudiaent. Without any mention of favors exchanged he agreed that the princesses were targets and were due access to the family power. Like Florimel, he required them, including the Empress, to swear to never attack Amber — and he would swear to see to it that Amber never attacked their Empire. Oaths were exchanged. Aula (most expendable) was selected to go first.

Benedict Trumped to Amber to see if it was possible to do it immediately. He Trumped Lisette a little over an hour later and informed her that the weather was cooperating. Aula, Gaius and Lisette went through to Benedict, just outside the Pattern chamber of Tir-na Nog’th. He sent Lisette up to watch for clouds. Aula got the standard warnings and brotherly bucking up from Gaius and a little Command Assurance fro Benedict. She succeeded. They returned to Rema and Claudia said she was ready to go now.

Benedict hadn’t really expected Claudia to go before Aula could be checked out. He raised an eyebrow, “Very well”, and Trumped out. When Lisette, Gaius and Claudia were pulled through they were outside in the moonlight of the ghost city. Benedict directed them below. Again, success. They climbed the long stairs and almost exited the castle doors but stopped. There were a score or so of Amber guardsmen strewn about, unconscious or with broken legs. Benedict was by the top of the stairs facing another man whom he disarmed, stunned with the flat of his blade, grabbed and threw sliding towards his other victims. The next man got a broken leg instead of stunned. He looked back at them, nodded, saluted down the stair with his sword, “Eric”, stepped back and saluted the downed men and pulled out Katsume’s Trump while striding through the doors. Gaius, Lisette and Claudia went with him to Kat who then joined them when Little Red Trumped Lisette and pulled them all through.

They hadn’t been back ten minutes when Florimel Trumped Lisette and came through to Rema. She apologized for her lack of time. All of Lisette’s agreements regarding Earth and trade she agreed with in advance. As for the family… that would properly take days but regarding the abductions she wouldn’t rule out her any but two of her brothers, one of whom they’d met and one — two — of her four sisters. There could easily be other suspects she was unaware of. Trumps… they’d see what they could do. And now she really had to go.

After actually talking to our hosts, rather than bargaining with them for trinkets, it became clear that our cosmology was not as it seemed. The current “shadow” structure of the world exists largely because Oberon and Dworkin (along with some other, unnamed people) set it up that way to avoid multiverse-destroying magic. Magic doesn’t work well across shadow boundaries largely to prevent people like the Ghost-Skinner from constructing mantles of power that are too powerful for the fabric of reality.

Speaking of Mantles of Power, the fastest and easiest way to set yourself up as a legend is to build one. Most mythical creatures (especially those that break laws of physics) are endowed with a mantle that gives them most of their power. The more you know . . . !

However, that left us with the unfortunate drawback of having to buy weapons and armor that are magically delicious from the Dwarves . . . who are able to build that stuff since they tend the wellsprings of creation. Since Princes and Princesses of Amber are generally a force for creation, they’ve got a soft spot for us. It also turns out that they can build anything, given time, and that they don’t always go around looking like forge-stereotypes.

That includes a new body for Big Red. So long, frequently-forgotten plot hook! Big Red traded his Trump deck to Benedict’s daughter before we left.

Having established that competent gene-tweaking is available (including super-opiates and deep-power weed), our heroine and heroes departed for Gaius’ Birth-Shadow, to deliver the good news to both his mother (a princess of Amber herself) and his sister.

Gaius is reunited with his family, who have all come looking for him after he went missing.

We introduce and demonstrate firearms.

We return to the palace, where we are treated to a massive feast.

(Personally, Little Red interjected, I don’t like the idea of being the barbarian. My birth-culture knew how to make real steel, not barely smelt iron. We have chopsticks, not fingers and knives. And no matter what I do, there isn’t any way that alchemy can replace the wonders we’ve seen in Flora’s world, where there are mills to make powder, and machines that can turn out perfectly identical rifle barrels in the hundreds. We should import spring steel for crossbows — at least then there’d be a local source of ammunition.)

Benedict and Flora were Trumped and introduced around.

Then Mom and Sis found out about the pattern. And ’nanna said that Sis would walk it immediately, with Mom following if she succeeded.

So they did.

(These are the joys of autocracy, Little Red quipped. Mom wouldn’t have made it if we hadn’t had Benedict to hit everybody who wanted to stop us with his penis. I mean sword. No, I think I did mean penis. Anyway, I hope that we haven’t picked up a serious debt or political enemy here. And what do I mean, “we”? The only way I’m paying is if Benedict says “Do it or I’ll kill you”, and he could do that anyway.)

Anyway, it appears that what Gaius’ world really needs is the ChickieNob — will he get it? Stay tuned!

Little Red, an escapee from one of the mage academies/feedlots (“Voldewort’s”) run by Yagemar, the Unspeakable Evil, ruler of Yagemar’s World. (Tech is sort of failing, over-magicked high Renaissance; world is at least half-wrecked by mage wars.) Well-trained mage. Carries the gem-and-skull remnants of his half brother Big Red. Largish, black, male, reddish hair.

William Somethingorother (ATTN: Colin), Anglish assassin/minor crime boss and despised non-local in Veniccia, one of the Italies. (Renaissance-ish.) Probably his world’s best assassin, and a minor mage. (Casting: Michael J. Fox. Only a lot scarier at need.)

Lisette, beloved daughter of Princess Florimel, native of Flora’s World (our Earth circa 1978), a Trump Artist, world-walker*,co-owner of Flora’s many companies and properties, trained to survive, thrive and be able to escape from anywhere. (Casting: Eva Green)

Gaius Furius of the Imperatorii, prince of the Oberon-descended uberclan of the werewolf overclass of a strongly Romanesque Empire. (Early medieval at best, but with full-on Roman engineering and such.) His mother is heir apparent. World-walker and extraordinarily good (but wolf-themed) shapeshifter. (Casting: Hugh Jackman in Van Helsing)

Little Red is on the lam in Yagemar’s World. While returning to a hideout after raiding a village (stealthily) for food, he is ambushed by a masked, cloaked, black-clad fellow who is 1) stronger, 2) a better fighter, 3) armed with drugged weapons and excellent info. LR is rendered unconscious.

He wakes up naked in a lab which he would describe as confusing and strange but we see as Girl Genius meets 1960’s Soviet Baroque. He is strapped down, very securely — inch thick, 4 inch wide, rhino hide — to a thinly padded board. His brother the skull is nearby. Three doctors are examining him with weird instruments, some of which feel magical to LR. He’s run, and rotated, through a sensor pod, fitted with a brain scan helmet which feels like needles piercing his skull and stimulating various pain, pleasure and other centers while the Three Doctors — Dr. Grahl (old, thin, dry, dispassionate), Dr. Dunin (a spritely Mengele type) and Dr. Skiba (nervous, young, nerdy) watch the results on a chalkboard-sized scanner. All three doctors suffer from skin conditions.Little Red can’t understand a word they say, not that they’re talking to him. There’s some moderate electroshock. There are a lot of drugs tried out. After a very, very long day LR is taken to a spacious, Spartan cell by the six hulking orderlies who’ve helped with muscle in the lab and otherwise stayed at dull-eyed attention. Said orderlies are big men with grayish skin bulked up by grafted on muscle, stronger than normal humans. LR is fitted with substantial, steel manacles and leg irons and not given any clothing.

The cell is smoothed concrete with a pipe constantly running water into a depression in the floor draining into a 6 inch diameter, barred hole — the toilet facilities. The door is 4’ wide, steel and has a grill to look through and a slot for dishes. Lighting is a bare bulb behind 4 inches of armor glass set into the ceiling. Food appears eventually, unappealing gloppy, nutritious stuff and not nearly enough of it.
Little Red softly Chants the Freedom Song and his bindings snap open. So does the door and loud hooting alarms, flashing red lights and the pounding of Orderly feet ensue. Little Red kills some but is swamped by the many, fearless, meatmen, their clubs and their cattle prods.

Little Red regains consciousness as Dr. Dunin sews his lips together, then explains via pantomime and chalkboard drawings that Red will be fed through a tube from now on. The glop was better.

Little Red spends much of the next day in a sensory deprivation tank and the Bad Doctors discover his psychic communication with his brother. The skull is locked in a shielded case when they aren’t studying them together. On the plus side LR and Big Red (skull brother) have learned a few words of not-Polish. Also, hasn’t been caught, skinned and soul-eaten by the Unspeakable One. Yet.

William has accepted a hefty commission to cancel the Honorable Giacone, Ironworker Guildmaster. When he shadows Ser Giacone into the large garden where the hit is to take place, he feels something is wrong. As in, 1) the garden is an illusion, 2) he’s not in Veniccia, 3) he’s not in his world, 4) the Giacone illusion drops and it’s a fast-moving man in black with a really effective armored cloak which blocks Will’s thrown knives as the fellow produces a card, looks at it and disappears in a rainbow shimmer.

There’s no food. Every animal and most plants are dead, apparently eaten by some sort of fungus that then died itself. Water, yes and what wine was sealed in glass and lead. Days go by. Will gets weaker and slower. He makes himself a fort, booby traps the hell out of it and waits, conserving energy.

On Day Seven, the Bastard in Black comes back with a small horde of desperate fellows driven before him to trigger all the traps. They talk from extreme accurate knife throwing distance. The Bastard’s patron requires Will’s presence. They can do it the easy way or the hard way, he says, and tosses some manacles to Will. Put them on and they leave now. Otherwise the man will be back in a couple of days when Will is even weaker. Will declines and chases the Bastard over roof tops but is slowed by starvation; and the Bastard is damned fast. The Bastard rainbows away.

Will returns to his fort and finds the Bastard there before him tossing the last of the only meat in this city through a rainbow. Hilarity ensues and Will loses, though not by much considering that the Bastard is armored and well-fed. Will’s lights go out on the sight of the Bastard cursing and applying spelled items to a shallow poisoned wound on his arm.

Will awakes with the Bad Doctors to a near match of Little Red’s experiences. He demands food, like the Bastard promised. Sadly, LR is unable to convey a warning by banging on the wall and shouting nasally so Will conjures his manacles into life and unlockedness. Alarms, Orderlies, beating, cattle prods, lips sewn shut.

Both Little Red and Will work on scraping a link of their manacles into sharpness to cut their stitches.

Lisette is taking a vacation from being Boss — Mom has been mostly occupied being a diplomat or a hostess for King Eric in Amber for ten years, Earth time — on the island of Fiji. Beaches, surfer boys, drinking, ganja, snorkeling, a little surfing.

While snorkeling with Joey and Andy (Adonis-like, sexually talented examples of amiable but not-so-bright young manhood) Lisette is extremely surprised to find herself looking at a 30’ gold-and red sea serpent or Chinese dragon which slaps the boys aside, clamps lightly on her shoulder and constrictors itself around her. Neural Disrupt gets Snuffed to uselessness as the coils contract and force the air out of her lungs, and a psychic contact peters out with her consciousness. WTF is something like that doing on Earth?

Lisette awakens with the Bad Doctors in attendance. Scans and so on take place. She attempts Feminine Wiles, at which she is expert. Dr. Grahl displays an iota or two of pity. Dr. Dunin doesn’t want to damage a work of art. Unless necessary. Dr. Skiba wants to rape her and Grahl reminds him that that would be Contrary to Orders. (Lisette speaks Earth-Polish and understands much of what they say.) She concentrates her efforts on Dr. Skiba who eventually injects himself with some sort of anti-aphrodesiac; one of the Orderlies gets an erection watching her act.

Meanwhile Lisette’s Trump sensitivities are assaulted by a constant attempt to contact her. This turns out to be a madman, staring at her trump which is over there, about 100’ away, strapped to a chair with his eyelids taped open. After some time there are two madmen staring at it, then the first goes away — shift change.

Lisette does not attempt anything magical in her cell. She does brain-burn the current madman Trump call blocker in a fit of pique. Alarms! Orderlies take her back to the lab. A generator starts up and Trump static blankets the area — everybody’s skin itches, even the orderlies. Dr. Grahl tells her calmly that psychics don’t grow on trees and she must be punished. Electroshock, much worse than before. Grahl says after that he’s sure she can see reason. And a new psychic is on-line.

When Lisette has her self back together she waits for shift change and kills both psychics, using a Burst of Psyche to be sure. As a result she’s beaten and cattle-prodded. Then Dr. Skiba is allowed to administer some 30 long, shallow cuts to her, all over, which are then salted and washed with a weak but very painful hydrochloric acid solution.

Gaius Furius receives word that a strange beast has been harassing a nearby settlement. Something like a scaled cheetah with a long neck, the size of a large horse, very quick and intelligent. The beast ate a few pigs but hasn’t attacked people directly though many were injured chasing it. Many dogs lost the same way and two local lords (werewolves) failed to catch it.

Gaius decides that he’d rather kick it in the ass than piss on it and calls up a legion to act as beaters. It evades them. It climbs trees. It mocks them. It farts in their general direction.

Eventually Gaius breaks down and chases it himself — the beast’s fascinating (and enchanted) scent has something to do with that. It’s a trap. Gaius follows it through a stealthed shadow portal and the beast turns, grows, becomes draconic and chases him. It’s bigger, a little faster (or maybe he’s a little groggy from its magicked scent) and catches him, knocks him down and breathes powerful knockout gas in his face. Lights out.

Gaius wakes to the sight of the Bad Doctors. The usual routine follows but Gaius freaks and his Automatic Shapeshifting kicks in. He starts sweating and pissing out the drugs, breaks a wrist strap, grows a foot taller and breaks all the straps as the Orderlies beat and zap him and he grows armor and becomes less conductive. ALL the alarms go off. Gaius goes apeshit wolf-man on the Orderlies. Almost all the Orderlies pile on. In the struggle nearly everything gets broken, including the Bad Doctors; Grahl died well, trying to bring a bazooka-sized Maser Cannon to bear on the berserk werewolf by being hit by an Orderly. The alarms quit, somehow broken or turned off accidentally.

Will and Little Red free their lips enough to magic themselves free of their manacles, and the doors open automatically. Their one guard can’t hear over the alarms and is staring the wrong way. Gacked. They enter the guard room and discover shotguns and pistols — Will recognizes them as firearms, LR not so much — as well as more clubs and cattle prods.

Lisette gets the madman to pull her through. With his teeth. Then gets him to let go. She’s in a room with six sleeping/drugged psychics, a glass case crowned with odd machinery with a skull in it, a big safe and the Madman Trump Viewing Chair. The one attendant (not an Orderly) is scared shitless of the noises coming from the main lab and cowers in the corner at her evil look. She gets picks her manacles’ locks and goes to work on the safe when the alarms quit.

Little Red, Will and Wolf-Man Gaius meet and greet. Since the wolfman is covered with the blood (and more) of their enemies he must be OK. They hope. LR senses that his brother that way. In the other lab with the naked chick (too pale, too skinny) playing with the big metal box. He offers to open it with magic. She declines but gives up after a bit because people won’t be quiet! Her Trumps are inside, plus LR’s talisman and their other goodies. They acquire spare (unbloodied) lab coats. Lisette says she can get them away. They find the file room where Lisette can sort of make out the not-Cyrillic writing; they take two cabinets. Will would like the Maser Cannon but it is cracked and giving off the odd spark.

Lisette Trumps them to a lounge in the Nepalese Fortress. The others are Really Interested in this Trump stuff. Florimel felt the Trump use (and knows it’s Lisette) and runs into the room, stops dead. Who are They? Fellow captives. Gaius shifts to human and asks, “Why do you all smell like family?” Introductions. Flora orders a fast dinner for 20, as eclectic a menu as possible, with plenty of Lisette’s favorites. Flora’s Gurkha chief of security (Nepal), Cpt. Thapa appears and watches carefully. Flora use him as an example of local male attire and says she’ll bring them some clothing. Will notices Cpt. Thapa’s pistol and SMG and military bearing and wants to know All About Earthly Firearms. And food.

Food is served, most of it cold — it’s about midnight. Flora brings in a big armful of clothing in Little Red’s and Will’s sizes. There will be a tailor and a cobbler later. And a masseur from the village. Their rooms are being prepared. There are baths.

Flora says she wants to check up on their possibly blood relation to her and Lisette and The Family. It will involve a drop of blood each and a spirit to ‘taste’ it. They are dubious. Flora starts to explain about the Family then breaks off for a demonstration — to show them the prize that makes the Family bullshit worth it . They troop outside and Florimel first takes the opportunity to raise her power over Earth (Control of Destiny) and make it unfindable for anyone but a very few; our protagonists feel this as the world shuddering around them on a deep and distressing level. Flora says she’ll show them just how good the family power is with a quick tour of Shadow. Little Red points out that two of them have been victims of world-walking traps. Flora, not fully powered down from altering the world’s fate, looks them over and says with casual conviction, “This world is my place of power. If I wanted you captured, you would be captured. If I wanted you dead, you would be dead.” There follows a two hour hike through dozens of worlds, with Flora altering their clothing (all but Gaius’ shapeshifting togs) appropriately for each place. "This is what membership in the Family means. That and a bunch of relatives who are … " she pauses, “I wouldn’t want to get myself into trouble here… wonderful in every way, though a couple of them (Benedict and Gerard) are even more wonderful, and I get along with Llewella well enough — I mean, she’s extra wonderful too.”
And, very likely, one of them is responsible for their acquaintance with the Bad Doctors and Orderlies.

Flora will arrange for them to have a shot at the family power, which might kill them though she’s never actually heard of a specific instance of that happening, if they swear to two things: Never Attack Amber (the city, not the family members) and swear to help each other, including Lisette, out of their current problem.

They agree, get spiritually taste-tested and it seems that they are indeed nephews of Florimel.

A blog for your campaign

Florimel informed Our Heroes that she had made arrangements to allow Lisette to attempt the Pattern in Tir-na Nog’th (— insert explanation—) in two days hence, Earth time.

They healed up, ate well and pursued, variously, the mysteries of Earthly firearms and a glimpse into chemistry and metallurgy, driving cars and motorcycles — in Rio de Janeiro’s outskirts since the roads of Nepal were not suitable, and generally learning about Earth’s resources and how to use them: television, video recordings, telephones, currencies, IDs (furnished by staff somewhere or other and Trumped in), how to use Trumps, Earthly manners, flashlights, lighters… much of it rather haphazard.

The Time arrived. Flora Trumped through to the peak of Kolvir and confirmed the lack of watchers. She Trumped the aspiring Pattern initiates through and led the way up the semi-transparent stairs with their profound lack of structural support up to the ghostly city. Gaius was left, with a Trump of Flora, to watch the near cloudless skies, just in case. They walked quickly through the ghost city to the ghost castle (all the ghosts seemingly oblivious to them but somehow not walking through them) and down the long stairs to the Pattern room.

Lisette went first; Flora insisted. The others may have been reassured by that.

The GM having had little success in creatively describing Patternwalks — let alone four in a row — gave a sketchy account of each ending with near exhaustion that rapidly faded after minutes and turned into the exaltation of being filled to the brim with the fires of Creation. Lisette wished herself up to relieve Gaius, he Walked the Pattern after William. Little Red went last carrying Big Red though Flora said she had no idea how that would work out. From nearly the first steps Little Red took, Big Red was there with him in ghostly transparency that gradually turned solid (with the sparks of the Pattern fountaining far higher than they had for any of the others) until the two of them finished just a step apart. The death-divided brothers hugged either in exhausted joy. They Trumped back to Nepal.

Rio seemed a fine choice for burning off some of the new initiates’ excess of energy. Flora got them suites in Rio’s ritziest hotel, passed out substantial credit cards to the guests and left them to their debauchery.

Lisette took them to some of her favored night spots in a limo and began their night with dancing, drinking, sampling of recreational drugs, the odd very short physical altercation. Gaius found and killed a vampire set to prey on a young woman. Lisette: “I thought they were all destroyed.” The party moved on to the hotel where they rented out the deluxe rooftop spaces and invited massive quantities of Rio’s attractive people up to party with an open bar and endless food. They had to tap Lisette’s own credit card (unlimited) to handle the massive expense. Gaius took the opportunity to duplicate the demigod Herculius’ legendary boning of fifty priestesses in a night. The others took less focused approaches to indulgence. Police were called and paid off; some joined the party, er, stayed to keep an eye on things.

They wandered over to the Rio mansion a couple of days later. Rumors were already circulating that several of the mortal partygoers had experienced astounding cures to ongoing medical conditions, apparent de-ageing, spontaneous psychic powers or broken addictions.

Flora had the others occupy themselves (there were tutors now available for most anything but especially for Thari, the language of Amber) while she took them one at a time to her art studio in Firenze (Florence, Italy) for Trump sittings. Little Red noticed the massive accumulation of free magic with a strong Trump flavor and that the studio was built over intersecting ley lines. He mentioned the latter and Flora told him she’d moved them. What, no earthquakes? A smug look: No, I smoothed them out. Wearing his chosen garb but his stance and lighting adjusted by Flora, Little Red watched Flora and five identical but silent conjured Floras work at six easels paint quickly with very small brushes for about two hours. The result were six identical Trumps crackling with energies and Flora tiredly sending Little Red on his way.

Florimel did two sittings a day, including one for Lisette whose old, pre-Patternwalk Trump images would no longer work. Once finished, Flora presented all her guests/new allies with full Dworkin made decks as well as the newly made Trumps of each other. They tried them out.

The following morning Flora, dressed for Amber, informed them that Eric, the King, had recalled her to Amber as soon as possible, cutting her vacation short. She suggested that Lisette Trump Benedict to see about getting some training in shadowshifting rather than blunder about on their own. After a big hug with Lisette she Trumped away.

The group determined to first go check out the site of Lisette’s attack and abduction. She Trumped them to Fiji. Lisette’s snorkeling partners, Joey and Donnie, were happily astounded to see her alive and well. They gave her their description of the sea serpent creature and said they’d dived the site looking for traces of her but found nothing but three of the creature’s orange-gold scales. They’d also spent several days totally trashing the bungalow she’d shared with them and mourning her loss with beer, ganja and sex. One scale they’d given to “that chick with the tits”, one was found in the bottom of a water bong and the last one they’d given to “Dolf”. Dolf turned out to be an Austrian surfer, a biologist on vacation, who’d been very excited to have tangible evidence of a real, previously unknown, large animal. He’d sent part of the scale to the University of Dresden, contacted his professors, this would be huge…Lisette convinced him, using a lot of Psychic pressure, that he’d made big, grass-fuled mistake. And confiscated the scale. The “chick with the tits” — Julia — had jetted away to, they thought, England by way of Australia. And maybe India. Little & Big Red’s Gaius didn’t find any odd scents on the beaches near the attack site.

Lisette Trumped Benedict and after a short delay he accepted. (She felt him touch her Trump…) She told him that she had some people he needed to meet. He pulled them through to an army camp where he’d been watching two companies train, the temperature about 45 degrees F, the wind brisk. Lisette, in a bikini, started to shiver. Gaius morphed his baggies to a full outfit and Will and the Reds conjured temporary clothing. Benedict whipped his cloak around Lisette. (Meanwhile, when their commander pulled five mostly naked people - one a babe- out of the air, the troops barely broke training at all. Discipline.) Benedict brought them to his tent and ordered hot drinks from an orderly.

They told Benedict their stories. His questions elicited every useful detail and went on to asking them about themselves. He seemed a bit surprised, though approving, that Flora would abandon secrecy to the extent she had. Lisette gave him one of her new Trumps. Benedict congratulated them on walking the Pattern and welcomed them to the family with a testing handshake. Gaius seemed equally matched; Benedict said, “Eric and Corwin and I, and you.” He told them that, so far as he knew, none of his siblings could shape-shift. (Glancing here at Gaius.“Wolf?” Gaius nodded.) But he wouldn’t be surprised if one or more could. The ‘Bastard in Black’ could be any of the men, or even Deirdre or Llewella in disguise. As to training them, he was busy with a small war and could not spare the time for days or even weeks. But wait a bit. He left the tent.

Lisette felt a Trump being used some tens of yards distant. Ten minutes later Benedict returned, followed by a fit Eurasian woman, something of Benedict’s features reflected in hers. “This is my daughter Kitsume. She walked the Pattern years ago and is competent to train you in its use.” Introductions all around. Lisette noticed accent, body language and introduced herself in Japanese. Katsume replied with an Osaka accent, then English flavored with Oxford. She looked at her father, “Apparently we had no ‘need to know’ about one another. It is just a little annoying. It would have been nice to have someone of similar background to talk to. Shopping. Shoes. Though Father is of course an excellent shopper if you are looking for weapons.”

Katsume addressed them all, “I too am a logical target of whomever tried to enslave you. I can set my duties here aside for a few days and show you the basics of Pattern use. Are you ready? Can you ride? Horses?”
The Reds said not.
“A training run then. Commander, with your permission?”
Benedict nodded. “Enjoy yourselves.”
“Let’s be about it. Don’t worry about clothing or supplies. I will provide them.” Katsume left the tent and started jogging. They followed.

Katsume made her first shadowshift while still inside the camp. She soon shifted warm clothing and boots onto them (aside from Gaius) and had each of them jog near her in turn as she described what she was about to do and then did it. It was a good six hours before the first rest break. She covered the basics of shadowshifting, of altering probabilities (shifting towards a particular future), and so on. Useful scenarios to shift for, such as ‘the treasure wagon with it’s defenders and attackers mostly dead’. The next day they covered using the Pattern for defense, shifting to shadows with different time rates (slippery) and finding things in shadow. The students were doing nearly all the shifting now. Will decided to find a rapier capable of withstanding his full strength. After some difficulties, Katsume told him that, according to her father, with muscle powered weapons it usually came down to dwarves.

Will took them to an expansive cave-forge with two ‘dwarves’ working it: five feet tall, massively muscled chests and overlong arms, exaggerated features out of fairy books, wearing only leather aprons, using oversized hammers like switches, reeking of magic. The larger introduced himself as Lofar, who asked their business. Neither her nor his fellow looked worried. Will told him he wanted a rapier, built for his more than human strength. Lofar looked him over, squeezed his arms, tried matching grip strength with him — Lofar was stronger. “As I thought. I had a notion to make one of those thin swords suitable for gadabout insect and finished yesterday. The Fates like their little jokes. Here it is. What do you offer for it?” It was beautiful and fit his hand and arm perfectly. But Will hadn’t considered payment. Lofar took it back, grinning. “A giant up the hills a ways killed my brother some time ago. Stomped him into pudding. Kill him and the blade is yours.” Lofar scratched three runes into the hilt and handed the blade to Will. “If you don’t kill Glumdalklitch first thing the blade will betray you.” Directions followed. Will headed into the hills. They let him go, apparently thinking ‘one giant, one Amberite’ was fair.

Two more dwarves ambled over, armed but mostly curious. Lisette informed them of her desire for a saber suitable for herself. And that she’d like to play cards for it. The gnarliest of the dwarves offered a deal, if she won he’d make her a damned fine saber, fit for a young goddess. If he won she’d fuck him silly all night. Lisette, expert card shark, shook hands on it. Lisette produced a deck. Vigg, the dwarf, inspected it. They settled on Poker, Texas Hold’em. They decided to play with 100 pebbles each, for markers, until sundown. Despite all Lisette’s skill, with rampant cheating on both sides, it was a near thing. But Lisette won.

Meanwhile, Will found Glumdalklitch and took some serious bruises evading the giant’s massive club while killing him by inches until, hamstrung, the giant fell and got the rapier through an eye. Will took a rather distinctive ear as proof. Plus the gallon or so of nasty, stinky, crusty giant blood all over him.